Social Ethics of European Civilizational Project of Ukraine
Authors:   the Institute of History of Ukraine, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Gorenko Oleg 
Published: July 2021

The article deals with the problems to conceptualize social ethics of democratic transformation in post-soviet society. Special attention is paid to the role of European social standards in the process of realizing the European civilization choice of Ukraine. It is also stressed here that European social standards remain a key factor making a project of European integration so attractive for the majority of Ukrainians. Special role of a stage by stage solution of a so-called «social approach» on the way to all-rounded humanization of state-forming strategies of European nations and of the system of European international relations in general is being stressed here. The main emphasis is also laid on the historical role of common European values. An attempt is made here to elucidate the above problems in correspondence with the ones expressed in the National report «Civilizational choice of Ukraine — a paradigm of cognition and a strategy to act» (2016), prepared by the leading scholars of Ukrainian Academy of Science. It is also accentuated that decisive factor to achieve success in joining the space of European unity is in integrity of understanding the ideas of Freedom and Justice. Since internal and external components of European freedom and justice are so closely intertwined that their separate interpretation in author’s opinion has no epistemological perspective. In conditions of world economic crisis the configuration, dynamics and content of integrational processes both in Europe and in post-soviet countries are being substantially changed while preserving basic system factors. Stable economic prosperity and social progress are becoming more and more dependent on world economic situation. At the same time, social welfare of citizens in some countries as well as their authority in contemporary world fully depend on moral-ethical maturity of national elites, level of confidence in society, general level of culture and the rate of individual responsibility of citizens for their future. With this view we consider the role of social ethics in general context of forming new theoretical and methodological basis of contemporary historical science. The utter importance of social problems for adequate understanding of crisis phenomena in political, economic and cultural life of the European Union after several stages of substantial expansion is being underlined. Special place of «European social model» in contemporary scientific and political discourse is being emphasized. It is underlined that nowadays we speak not only about rational and pragmatic correction of logic of international interaction but about radical change of all logic of internal social interaction, about formation and application of qualitatively new theory of making decisions. The above problems acquire special meaning in modern conditions of sharpening geopolitical competition concerning Ukraine. Real social result of Ukrainian civilizational choice directly influences the process of this competition, as it directly defines the position of both Ukrainian citizens and citizens of European Union countries. Modern financial and migration crisis of EU only enhances the influence of social factor on collective consciousness of «old» and «new» Europeans, frequently engendering rather dangerous tendencies in European life. The author tries to accentuate the importance of the idea of a serious social optimization strategy of European integration of Ukraine while considering qualitatively new external and internal conditions of National progress.