HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY AT KHARKIV UNIVERSITY IN THE 1830S

Abstract

This article focuses on how the work of Hegel, a representative of Classical German philosophy, was received by professors and teachers at Kharkiv University in the 1830s. In this context, the article first provides an overview of how Hegel’s philosophy was perceived at Kharkiv University from its founding on November 5/17, 1804, through the early 20th century. This section discusses the influence of Johann Baptist Schad (1758–1834), the first professor of the Department of Theoretical and Practical Philosophy at Kharkiv University, during the period 1804–1816, who, prior to that, while teaching at the University of Jena from 1799 to 1804, had been a colleague of Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. Representatives of the “Kharkiv Philosophical School of J. B. Schad” addressed various aspects of Hegel’s philosophy in their works and teaching and became the initiators of “Kharkiv Hegelianism”. Among them, a prominent figure was Schad’s successor in the philosophy department, Professor Andrii Dudrovych (1782–1830), who taught at Kharkiv University beginning in 1812. The article then discusses the reception of Hegel’s philosophy in the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly by members of the Department of Philosophy (Fedir Zelenohorsky, Pavlo Leukfeld, Isidor Prodan) as well as by the theology professor Tymofii Butkevych. In addition, the article highlights the role of Hegel’s philosophy in the works of representatives of the “Executed Renaissance” (Semen Semkovsky, Volodymyr Yurynets, Stepan Fedchyshyn), who, in the early period of Soviet Ukraine, viewed his works from a Marxist perspective and suffered under Stalinist repression in the 1930s.    

The main section examines some of the works by members of the Faculty of Philosophy at Kharkiv University in the 1830s in the context of the reception of Hegel’s thought. It begins by discussing the publications and lectures of Professor Fedir Chanov and Associate Professor Joseph Grenberg. In accordance with the second university charter of 1835, the Faculty of Philosophy was established at Kharkiv University, and its members drew upon Hegel’s teachings. Among the latter were historians (Volodymyr Tsykh, Oleksandr Roslavsky-Petrovsky, Ivan Slyvitsky), political economists (Tikhon Stepanov), and specialists in classical antiquity (Ivan Croneberg). Special mention is made of the influence of Hegel’s philosophy of art, in particular, his “Lectures on Aesthetics” (1835–1838), on the work of philologist Amvrosii Metlinsky (1814–1870), who was also a poet and a representative of Ukrainian Romanticism. In contrast, Hegel’s “Outlines of the Philosophy of Right” (1821) played a major role in the work of Professor Izmail Sreznevsky (1812–1880). Thus, various aspects of Hegel’s philosophy found a wide response at Kharkiv University in the 1830s, which became an important center of “Ukrainian Hegelianism”.