Abstract:
The article is devoted to the analysis of the modern character of the
Hryhoriy Skovoroda’s philosophy of education. Unlike his contemporaries, he
focuses on connections of philosophy and moral virtue. This position
contradicts the tendency of a modern institutionalization of philosophy in the
way of one more discipline of the modern research university. However,
Skovoroda’s critical position does not put into question the modern content of
his philosophy. On the contrary, Skovoroda’s understanding of philosophy
reveals the salvific ways of its cognitive and practical rehabilitation. It is
because his philosophy teaches people to be wise not only on the university
campus but in all spheres of their own lives. That is why he speaks not just of
philosophy, but of the "philosophy of the heart". Contrary to Christian
thought, he believes that human’s transformation is possible not through faith
and suffering, but through the discovery of a "new body" on the ground of
self-knowledge and love for oneself. Unlike the modern classical philosophy,
Skovoroda considers self-knowledge, not as a function of mind alone, and the
heart as a dichotomy to the mind. In accordance with contemporary
educational theories based on the idea of anthropotechnical turn in
philosophy, Skovoroda deems the heart an instrument for enhancing the mind.
Involving the heart into the sphere of rational increases the thinking of
knowledge about the specific situation of its embodiment and the cognitive
capabilities of its carrier. According to Skovoroda, an important consequence
of such human transformations should be the overcoming of fear and hatred of
the "other".
