G. S. SKOVORODA — PROPHET OF ANTIHISTORICISM

Abstract

Th e article discusses the views of Gregory Savich Skovoroda (1724–1794) on history. It is shown that G. S. Skovoroda’s antihistoricism was not connected with the ideas of the Enlightenment, and was a part of religious principles of the thinker’s worldview. G. S. Skovoroda’s views were close to rationalist doctrines of Christian sects. His attitude toward history is largely due to the method of symbolic or allegorical interpretation he was referring to in his writings as well as utilitarian and moralistic attitudes of his philosophy. His philosophy largely continues the tradition of scholarship in Kiev-Mohyla Academy, than follows the spirit of the secular Enlightenment thinking. To his contemporaries, G. S. Skovoroda appeared archaic, contrary to the established opinion in the historical and philosophical literature, he did not open a new era, but rather concluded an old one. Refs 6.

Keywords:

G. S. Skovoroda, history, symbolism, use, moralism, anthropology