An open lecture by Associate Professor of the Department of Political and Cultural Studies Nataliia Shelkova was held for students of the University of Turin (Italy) within the framework of the grant research program “Indagine sul carattere nazionale e transnazionale della filosofia, con particolare attenzione alla filosofia in Ukraine nel XVIII secolo” (“Research on the national and transnational character of philosophy, with special attention to philosophy in Ukraine in the eighteenth century”). Lecture topic: “A Brief History of Ukrainian Philosophy”.
The academic is also a researcher at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Turin. The lecture was given in Ukrainian and translated into Italian by Daniela Steila, the scientific curator of the grant program of Nataliia Shelkova, Professor of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Turin.
In her lecture, the scholar paid special attention to the features inherent in the Ukrainian mentality during the times of Kyivan Rus, which became the basis for the development of an original Ukrainian philosophy. These features include, first of all, the consideration of the heart, not the head, as the center of humanity in a person, which was embodied in the philosophy of the heart of Hryhorii Skovoroda and Pamfil Yurkevych. The Ukrainian mentality is characterized by a special attitude to the earthly world, which illuminates Divine harmony and perfection, which is reflected in the singing, nightingale-like Ukrainian language, the comprehension of which is the subject of the philosophy of language by Alexander Potebnyi. This language, as well as the entire way of life of Ukrainians, is born and lives in the peasant steppe spaces that the city lacks. Therefore, the urban environment and urban culture kill the Ukrainian spirit, which was emphasized by Panteleimon Kulish, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, and Dmytro Chyzhevsky when they developed the concept of the Ukrainian national idea. Potebnyi’s view of the phenomenon of nationalism, which should be viewed as internationalism and mutual respect for nations, is important for today. The vision of nationalism as the singling out of one’s nation and its opposition to others leads to regression and degradation of society, as we see in the situation with russia’s war against Ukraine.
The lecture attracted the deep attention of the students, who wrote down everything and after the lecture asked interesting questions about the development of the Ukrainian national idea in contemporary philosophy, the analysis of the nature of man and society in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the problem of returning national culture to its sources, and rethinking its history.
After the lecture, Nataliia Shelkova thanked the students for their attention and wished them to solve the problems of the modern world and visit Ukraine, a very beautiful country, after the war. The students accepted this with great pleasure.