Philosophy and Post-Totalitarian Practices

by Serhii Yosypenko^1
1 H.S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the NAS of Ukraine, Associate Professor of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Kyiv, Ukraine)
DOI: http://doi.org/10.29202/fhi/9/14
Received: Fabuary 25, 2018 / Accepted: March 14, 2018 / Published: April 14, 2018

This writing aims to outline the principles of researches on philosophy in Central and Eastern European countries, preferably USSR, in the latest soviet and post-soviet periods. In author’s opinion, the crucial points for such kind of research are: a) to discover a correlation between philosophy and the phenomenon of totalitarianism; b) to correlate a soviet philosophy with totalitarian experience. The article considers methodological and axiological problems in research of post-totalitarian practices in general as such as in philosophy. In author’s opinion the main problem in development of the post-soviet philosophy is interiorisation of intellectual, cultural and social practices, which were formed concerning to totalitarian experience. This became a reason of “cynicism” and “nihilism” of post-soviet philosophy. It’s impossible to cast mentioned phenomena off without consideration of totalitarian phenomenon and critical reconsideration of the own totalitarian experience.

Keywords: Central and Eastern Europe, totalitarian phenomenon, totalitarian experience, Soviet philosophy, post-totalitarian practices

Arendt, Hannah (1958) The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2nd edition. New York, World Publishing Co., Meridian Books.

---

Aron, Raymond (1965) Démocratie et totalitarisme. Paris, Gallimard.

---

Brzechczyn, Krzysztof (2011) Metodologiczny status koncepcji totalitaryzmu a modelowanie dynamikisystemu komunistycznego, in: Uwiklania historiografii. Miedzy ideologizacja dziejów a obiektywizmem badawczym (Studia i materialy poznanskiego IPN, t. XVIII, Eds. T. Blaszczyk, K. Brzechczyn, D. Ciunajcis, M. Kierzkowski). Poznan, Instytut Pamieci Narodowej, 67–84.

---

Guseinov, Abdusalam A., Lektorsky, Vladislav A. (2009) Philosophy in Russia: History and Present State. Diogenes, 222-223, 3–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0392192109343635

---

Lisovyi, Vasyl (2008) Ukrainian Philosophical Thought at 60-80-th of 20 century. Rusyn, Myroslav, Ogorodnyk Ivan, Bondar, Stanyslav and other. History of Ukrainian Philosophy. Kiev: Publishing Centre “Kyiv University,” 507-533.

---

Mink, Georges (2002) La société postcommuniste : théories et données sociologiques. L’Europe post-communiste, Ed. D. Colas. Paris, PUF, 443-534.

---

Pomian, Krzysztof (1995) Totalitarisme. Vingtième Siècle. Revue d’histoire, n°47, 4-23. https://doi.org/10.3406/xxs.1995.3177

---

Yermolenko, Anatoliy (2003) Latest Marxism — The Philosophy of Cynical Mind. Latest Soviet Marxism and Present (To the 70th Anniversary of Vadim Ivanov). Philosophical Anthropological Studies, 131-141.

Yosypenko, Serhii (2018) Philosophy and Post-Totalitarian Practices. Future Human Image, Volume 9, 134-144. http://doi.org/10.29202/fhi/9/14