HRYHORII SKOVORODA: PHILOSOPHICAL AND LEGAL CONNOTATIONS OF THE TEACHINGS OF THE UKRAINIAN THINKER
Authors: Holovko Oleksandr , Karpenko Ivan 
Published: November 2023

The article is devoted to the study of legal aspects of the philosophical teaching of Hryhorii Skovoroda. Despite all the paradoxes and symbolism of Skovoroda’s philosophical teaching, the search for a moral and religious basis in all social phenomena, and therefore both legal and state, makes him one of the most original adepts of the natural-legal understanding of the law. And in this, we see a certain heredity (with all the originality, originality, and much larger scale of the personality) of Kozachinsky’s views.

The heart itself is the main thing in achieving kinship (‘kinship’) - correspondence between inner and outer, between God and 'creature'. And although Skovoroda did not use the concepts of natural law and positive law, the correspondence of the second to the first (that is, the legal law) seems to be a kinship. The thinker combines mind, heart, and action into one: “...the heart is the thought of the abyss...thoughts are the seed and source of actions”. Skovoroda's attachment to natural law understanding is evidenced, in particular, by the fact that two natures in a person are also manifested in the presence of two laws (the internal – natural and external – human, positive should be understood by analogy).

Through the category of kinship, Skovoroda implements ideas consistent with Western rationalist concepts of justice and moral autonomy of the individual. They were manifested through the concept of ‘kindred work’. The kinship of each person is manifested in related work, which makes them happy, and society – harmonious. Kindred work is a consequence of ensuring justice in society, and it is embodied through law.

Belief in knowledge, in humanism, in human nature and its improvement – all this gives reason to attribute Skovoroda’s teachings to the Enlightenment, and not only Ukrainian but also European. The rationalist component, the understanding of the unity of man and the world, and the search for the harmonization of the individual and society are arguments in favor of the statement that Ukrainian classical philosophy (including the philosophy of law) begins with Skovoroda. Mysticism, symbolism, and especially the intuitionism of Skovoroda’s teaching in some aspects go beyond even classical philosophy (in particular, the philosophy of law), and therefore have features characteristic of non-classical philosophy and the philosophy of law of the 20th century.

For Skovoroda, the mystical and spiritual are inseparable from the rational, hence the same ‘mind of the heart’ that creates the unity of psycho-emotional and intellectual-rational principles in a person and the understanding of the content of law or natural law. The thinker did not dwell on the specifics of the philosophical justification of law itself. The doctrine of two natures and three worlds, along with a clear awareness of the non-legal nature of the positive casuistic law of Skovoroda’s time with its inquisitorial process, written and closed procedure, as well as stability, created the thinker’s original idea of justice and truth as the basis of law.