Ethical Ideas and Features of Mentality of Ukrainians in the Works of Scientists of the Past and Present

Author

Mushketyk Lesia

a Doctor of Philology, a Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, a chief research fellow of the Ukrainian and Foreign Folkloristics Department of M. Rylskyi Institute of Art Studies, Folkloristics and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine).

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5958-0044

Ethical Ideas and Features of Mentality of Ukrainians in the Works of Scientists of the Past and Present

Abstract

Scientists, artists and writers have long been interested in the national characterology and features of mentality of Ukrainians, emphasizing their ethicism, which is based on folk culture. As far back as in the 19th century, V. Antonovych, M. Kostomarov, I. Nechui-Levytskyi have distinguished these peculiarities of Ukrainians in a comparative aspect to Russians and Poles. These are, in particular, include democratism, striving for justice, egalitarianism, lyricism, pantheism and others. Well-known scientists such as O. Potebnia, M. Sumtsov, T. Rylskyi H. Bulashev have been also imbued with these issues. The attraction of Ukrainians to Europeanness, not Russian Asianness, has been noted later by M. Hrushevskyi, F. Kolessa, I. Ohiienko, and others.

As the mentioned subject was banned in the Soviet times, an important contribution to the study of the Ukrainian mentality and ethnopsychology of Ukrainians has been made by Ukrainian scholars from diaspora. These are the works of F. Vovk, Ya. Yarema, D. Chyzhevskyi, Yu. Lypa, D. Dontsov, etc., where the authors explain the essence of the Ukrainian mentality and the place of Ukrainian ethnos in world culture.

Some works of the diaspora researchers O. Kulchytskyi, Ye. Onatskyi, M. Shlemkevych and others are placed in the collection Ukrainian Soul (1956). They emphasize introversion, individualism, anarchism, humanity and striving for freedom of Ukrainians. Following H. Skovoroda and P. Yurkevych, who have written about heart as the core of spirituality, the idea of heart-centeredness is further adopted by such scholars as S. Yarmus, Ye. Kaluzhnyi, B. Tsymbalistyi, I. Mirchuk.

Problems of origins and components of the Ukrainian national character have been in the field of view of scientists in subsequent periods also. O. Nelha, A. Bychko, I. Bychko, I. Starovoit, H. Vashchenko, P. Hnatenko, V. Khramova and others have been engaged in their elaboration. Thus, S. Krymskyi has studied the concept of «House-Field-Temple», V. Lychkovakh – the image of the Ukrainian «miracle garden», N. Khamitov has distinguished the main archetypes of Ukrainian culture.

Keywords

national mentality, features, ethism, researches, diaspora, Europeanness, modernity.

References

1. ABRAMOVA, Inna. To the Problem of Ukrainian Mentality. Bulletin of Zaporizhzhia National University. 2008, no 2, pp. 7–12 [in Ukrainian].
2. ANTONOVYCH, Volodymyr. Three National Folk Types. In: Olha TODIICHUK, Vasyl ULIANOVSKYI, compilers, Svitlana HOLOVKO, ed.-in-chief. VolodymyrAntonovych. My Confession: Selected Historical and Journalistic Works. Kyiv: Lybid, 1995, pp. 91–101 [in Ukrainian].
3. BYCHKO, Ada, Ihor BYCHKO. The Phenomenon of Ukrainian Intelligentsia. An Attempt of Existential Research. Drohobych, 1997, 115 pp. [in Ukrainian].
4. HORBOLIS, Larysa. The Paradigm of Folk Religious Morality in the Works of Ukrainian Writers of the Late 19th – Early 20th Centuries. Sumy: Cossack Bulwark, 2004, 200 pp. [in Ukrainian].
5. HORSKYI, Vilen. History of Ukrainian Philosophy: Course of Lectures. Kyiv: Scientific Thought, 1997, 287 pp. [in Ukrainian].
6. HRUSHEVSKYI, Mykhailo. Who are the Ukrainians and What do They Want. Kyiv: Society «Knowledge» of Ukraine, 1991, 240 pp. [in Ukrainian].
7. KOSACH, Yurii. The Constellation of Cygnus. Kyiv: A-Ba-Ba-Ha-La-Ma-Ha, 2017, 400 pp. [in Ukrainian].
8. KOSTOMAROV, Mykola. Slavic Mythology. Kyiv: Lybid, 1994, 283 pp. [in Ukrainian].
9. KRYMSKYI, Serhii. Archetypes of Ukrainian Mentality. In: Myroslav POPOVYCH, ed.-in-chief. Problems of the Theory of Mentality. Kyiv: Scientific Thought, 2006, pp. 273–301 [in Ukrainian].
10. KRYMSKYI, Serhii. Under the Signature of Sophia. Kyiv: “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” Publishing House, 2008, 718 pp. [in Ukrainian].
11. KULTENKO, Valentyna. Dynamics of Formation of Moral and Ethical Paradigm of Thinking in Ukrainian Social and Philosophical Thought and Modern Political Consciousness. Philosophy of Ethnic Culture and moral and Aesthetic Strategies of Public Self-Determination: Collected Works. Chernihiv: TsNTEI, 2006, pp. 34–38 [in Ukrainian].
12. Culture and Ethnoethics. Proceedings of the International Scientific Theoretical Conference. June, 1994. Kyiv. Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, 1994. Iss. 1–5 [in Ukrainian].
13. LYPA, Yurii. Appointment of Ukraine. Lviv: Ukr. Hoverla Bookstore, 1953, 308 pp. [in Ukrainian].
14. LYCHKOVAKH, Volodymyr. Wonderful Garden of Culture: Selected Articles on Aesthetics, Culturology, Philosophy of Art. Chernihiv: EPC “Truth of Desna”, 2006, 160 pp. [in Ukrainian].
15. LYCHKOVAKH, Volodymyr. Sacral Horizons of Ukrainian Culture: Archetypes – Chronotopes – Signatures. Artistic Culture. Relevant Problems. 2010, iss. 7, pp. 187–194 [in Ukrainian].
16. TABACHKOVSKYI, Vitalii, ed.-in-chief. Man in Essential and Existential Dimensions. Kyiv: Scientific Thought, 2004, 244 pp. [in Ukrainian].
17. MIRCHUK, Ivan. The Worldview of the Ukrainian People: An Attempt of Reference. Folk Art and Ethnography, 1996, no 1, pp. 22–33 [in Ukrainian].
18. NELHA, Oleksandr. Ethnos Theory. Course of Lectures. Kyiv: KVHU Publishing House, 1997, 356 pp. [in Ukrainian].
19. NECHUI-LEVYTSKYI, Ivan. Worldview of the Ukrainian People: Sketch of Ukrainian Mythology. Kyiv: Oberehy, 1992, 88 pp. [in Ukrainian].
20. NECHUI-LEVYTSKYI, Ivan. Ukrainianhood on Literary Summons with Moscowshchyna. Lviv: Stonecutter, 1998, 256 pp. [in Ukrainian].
21. PONOMARIOV, Anatolii. Ukrainian Ethnography: Course of Lectures. Kyiv: Lybid, 1994, 318 pp. [in Ukrainian].
22. POPOVYCH, Myroslav. To be a Man. Kyiv: Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, 2011, 223 pp. [in Ukrainian].
23. STAROVOIT, Iryna. Western European and Ukrainian Mentalities: Coincidences and Originalities (Philosophical and Historical Analysis): An Author’s Abstract of Doctor Thesis in Philosophy. Kyiv: 1997, 40 pp. [in Ukrainian].
24. KHRAMOVA, Viktoriia, ed.-in-chief. Ukrainian Soul. Kyiv: Phoenix, 1992, 128 pp. [in Ukrainian].
25. TABACHKOVSKYI Vitalii, Mykhailo BULATOV, Nazip KHAMITOV, et al. Philosophy: The Human World: A Course of Lectures: A Teaching Aid. Kyiv: Lybid, 2003, 432 pp. [in Ukrainian].
26. KHRAMOVA, Viktoriia. To the Problem of Ukrainian mentality. In: Viktoriia KHRAMOVA, ed.-in-chief. Ukrainian Soul. Kyiv: Phoenix, 1992, pp. 3–36 [in Ukrainian].
27. CHYZHEVSKYI, Dmytro. Ukrainian National Character and Outlook. In: Chyzhevskyi Dmytro. Essays on the History of Philosophy in Ukraine. Kyiv, 1992, pp.17–23 [in Ukrainian].
28. YANIV, Volodymyr. Ukrainian Temper and Our Educational Ideal. In: Yaniv Volodymyr. Essays on the History of Ukrainian Ethnopsychology. Munich, 1993, pp. 196–217 [in Ukrainian].
29. YAREMA, Yakym. Ukrainian Spirituality in Its Cultural and Historical Manifestations. Lviv, 1937, 80 pp. [in Ukrainian].