Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University hosted a guest lecture by Professor of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia (USA) Mykhailo Sierhieiev for students and postgraduates of the Department of Philosophy, Cultural Studies and Information Activity.
The topic of the lecture: “The Project of the Enlightenment and the “American Dream””. In his lecture, Mykhailo Sierhieiev spoke about the education system in the United States, about the origins of the so-called “American individualism”, which are formed at school and consolidated at the university, which are the main idea of the Enlightenment – the freedom to choose one’s life path: everyone has the right to learn what he wants; to build a life path as he wants; to profess the religion he wants. This idea of freedom, which is a symbol of the United States, extends not only to individuals, but also to the construction of states in the United States: each state is a separate state with its own main religion, system of values, etc. In addition, if an American (and this is not a nation, because there are many nations in the U.S. from all over the world) moves to another state, he needs to draw up a lot of documents for residence, which can take even six months. Among the shortcomings of American education, Mykhailo Sierhieiev called the lack of a system of humanitarian education: a person knows only what he needs in his profession, and beyond that – educational and cultural emptiness, zero or the Middle Ages, as the scientist put it.
The discussion was actively attended by Olha Telushkyna, a postgraduate student majoring in Cultural Studies, Oleksandr Hrosytskyi, a student majoring in Philosophy, Prof. Olha Smolina, Prof. Mykola Chursin, and Associate Professor Olena Sapytska.
During the discussion, very interesting questions were raised about the essence and possibility of technocracy in the United States, the nature of American culture, the nature of man and the relationship between soul and body, the problem of immortality and even the illusory existence of man as a physical being on Earth.
The lecture was moderated by Associate Professor Nataliia Shelkovaia.
The lecture was attended by master students majoring in “Cultural Studies” and “Theology”, bachelor students majoring in “Philosophy”, postgraduate students majoring in “Cultural Studies”, teachers of the Department of Philosophy, Cultural Studies and Information Activity, as well as invited teachers and postgraduate students of the Departments of Law, Constitutional Law, History and Archeology and the head of the Postgraduate Department. All present sincerely thanked Mykhailo Sierhieiev for a very interesting and informative lecture and its fruitful discussion.
Mykhailo Sierhieiev – Doctor of Religious Studies, historian of religion, philosophy and contemporary art; editor-in-chief of the book series “Contemporary Philosophy” in the publishing house Brill (Netherlands, 2016-2019); head of the Department of Religion, Philosophy and Theology at the Wilmette Institute (2017-2021); Lecturer of courses in the history of religion, philosophy, modernist art, and other humanities at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and the Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley, California); affiliated professor at the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities of New Brighton and Minnesota; author of more than two hundred scholarly, literary, and journalistic articles; author and editor of fourteen books; speaks 10 foreign languages.