Ukraine’s philosophy of the XXth century: criticism of one model of historization

Abstract

The aim of this article is to critically examine the model of historization of Ukrainian philosophy of the second half of the 20th century proposed by Vasyl Lisovyi in his article «Ukrainian philosophical thought of the 60-80s of the 20th century». The criticism consists of the following points: (1) the formulation of the subject of study in Lisovyi's article is conceptually and empirically problematic; (2) Lisovyi’s periodisation of Ukrainian philosophy of the 20th century does not reflect the aspects specific to philosophy; (3) the impossibility of representing phenomena, events and significant relations between them within the model due to a number of unjustified simplifications (e.g. ones concerning political and cultural contexts, trends in dialectical-materialist philosophy); (4) due to the schematisation of the period through the confrontation of binary oppositions, the model loses the specifics of the processes in the philosophy of that period and is unable to explain the further development of philosophy; (5) the use of temporally and spatially indefinite clichés (e.g. «speculative thinking»). Special attention is paid to Lisovyi's view of the relationship between dialectical materialism and Hegel's philosophy. It is proved that, at least from standpoint of modern Hegelean studies, Hegel's philosophy does not meet the criteria for criticism of dialectical materialist philosophy and "speculative thinking" that Lisovyi puts forward as those that should be inherent in Hegel's own philosophy. To conclude, the author claims that Lisovyi's model cannot be used as a complete working approach in contemporary studies of the history of Ukrainian philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. However, this model presents scholars with two fruitful methodological principles: (1) the principle of "equal safety" / "equal threat"; (2) the principle of balance in evaluating the achievements and losses of philosophy under totalitarianism. Thus, Lisovyi’s model should be considered as an important resource for the current search for an effective model of historicisation of the relevant period.