Hryhorii Skovoroda and Western European Philosophy: Between the Banks of Mysticism and Rationalism

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to establish links between the teachings of Hryhorii Skovoroda and the leading trends in Western philosophy of his time. Since the anticipated influences, similarities and parallels are mostly implicit, the main purpose of the study is to identify common motives for thinking, rather than direct dependence. Nevertheless, the biggest difficulty of this analysis is that it is not easy to enroll a Ukrainian philosopher in any modern intellectual movement. That is why his place in philosophy is somewhere at the crossroads between mystical and rationalist backgrounds. Initially, the author compares the views of German mystics with the concepts of Skovoroda. But the way of thinking of Skovoroda and the teachings of Meister Eckhart and Jacob Böhme – two prominent agents of this kind of mysticism – are analyzed in more detail. Mystics influenced the emergence of European Freemasonry, and this movement was established in Ukraine at Skovoroda’s period. However, it is not clear whether Skovoroda himself accepted these ideas. Further focus of the inquiry is on the Enlightenment. The question is: can Skovoroda’s philosophy be considered as Enlightenment thought? To find an answer to this question, two dissimilar Western representatives of this era, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, were chosen for comparison with Skovoroda. Finally, the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard shows the prospects for the development of Skovoroda’s views in later European thought. In keeping with the trends of his time, in which there was room for opposing intellectual pursuits, Skovoroda does not avoid mystical and rational principles. Where logicalrational language seemed to him unsuitable and powerless, he resorted to symbolism, not bypassing the artistic and literary means of expression. The philosopher does not betray the mind for the sake of the irrational. But rationalism does not fundamentally determine Skovoroda’s way of thinking. He was skeptical about the spread of science and general education. According to him, knowing about the world is still not enough for social harmony, while education begins with self-knowledge. Visible nature only hints at hidden truth. At the same time, enlightening reasoning cannot be fully rejected as an aspect of Skovoroda’s teaching. Nevertheless, instead of an absolute project of the mind, he offers an individual project, when knowledge of the man and the universe correlates with each other. And this can be achieved only through the discovery of one’s own personality.