Educational space as a historical and philosophical phenomenon: Theoretical and methodological foundations

Introduction. The article theoretically examines the genesis of specific features of such key pedagogical concepts and categories as ‘education’ and ‘educational space’ in the historical and philosophical context, adapted to the conditions of multi-vector social challenges of modern reality. Interest in the problem of the studied phenomena is determined by modern discussions around the current educational space, the specifics of its self-development in the historical and philosophical context of research in a rapidly and sometimes unpredictably changing social reality. The purpose of the article is a historical and philosophical analysis of the essence and existence of the educational space in the comparative context of sociocultural and cognitive characteristics of society. Materials and Methods. The methodological basis of the study was formed by historical-philosophical and systematic approaches. The authors used the principles of flexible rationality in building theoretical constructs of the phenomena ‘education’ and ‘educational space’. The methodological value of the study lies in the historical and philosophical analysis of the problems of the formation of educational space in Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment and the New Age, which makes it possible to navigate the variety of manifestations of the modern educational environment. Methods used by the authors include: comparative-historical, deductive, chronological, generalization and analysis. Results. The main results lie in the historical and philosophical analysis of the essence and existence of educational space and the disclosure of its specific characteristics in the comparative context of the socio-cultural characteristics of education, which allows to interpret the education itself as a unity of the process and result of the development and appropriation by the individual of general forms of interaction with the objects of reality and themselves that have been developed by the community and anchored in the culture. The study shows that the educational area of the Middle Ages absorbed a symphony of theological, philosophical and scientific knowledge in the true sense. During that time, scientific knowledge was pushed into the background compared to the knowledge of God and the soul. The authors established the idea that the evolving educational space, responding to the challenges of the time, determines the subject of education, i. e. in the womb of subject-subject and subject-object relationships. The authors highlight the relevant issues of the phenomenon of educational space as a complex, self-evolving system functioning as a significant sphere of social life. The educational space in the Age of Enlightenment begins to actively differentiate itself from layers of social spaces, as everyone realizes that through education, the process of deobjectification and objectification occurs in the human mind. One of the projections of modernity predictions is the transformation of education in postmodern society and the transition from the broadcasting and facilitating function of education to a mediating one. Conclusions. The authors have identified specific features of the genesis of the concepts of ‘space’, ‘education’, and ‘educational space’ in the comparative context of the historical and philosophical paradigm of the sociocultural characteristics of society and the role of education in it. The main content of the problem of the educational space as a societal phenomenon that is in a development and evolution situation together with society and the epoch is generalized. The position is justified that in the philosophical discourse, which is woven from people's cognitive actions and interpersonal communication, the educational space exhibits a developmental logic not only ontologically but also epistemologically, creating a unique phenomenon - educational environments in which its social criteria and meanings are formed and implemented. It was shown that the educational space reflects the structural coexistence and interaction of all possible educational systems, their components, educational events, for the existence of which the epoch is able to create conditions. It is noted that the educational space is an open system subject to dissipative processes, the emergence of new structures and the destruction of those that are energetically unable to maintain their existence.