Skovoroda's Philosophy of Happiness in the Context of Western Philosophy

Ε. Lashchyk (США) SKOVORODA'S PHILOSOPHY OF HAPPINESS IN THE CONTEXT OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY The outlines of Skovoroda's philosophy of happiness are rather well known and I have no intention of repeating what many 1 The claim that Skovoroda devel- Skovoroda experts have written. My interest in this paper is to explore to what oped an original extent Skovoroda's theory of happiness is unique in Western Philosophy. I will philosophical po- argue that Skovoroda's theory introduces aspects that are novel when seen against sition or system is not new. the background of the giants of Ancient, Medieval, and even Modern Philosophy Ч Dmytro The uniqueness of Skovoroda's theory of happiness is to be found in his Cyzevs'kyj for example says that account of human nature and in his account of how this nature can be known. Skovoroda's phi- Unique features can be found thus, in his ontology, in his epistemology and in losophy "though not original in its how these are related to form a theory of happiness. details, when The dominant line in epistemology beginning with Plato and Aristotle looked at as a through St. Thomas Aquinas and Descartes up to modern science was that knowl- whole, is an inde- pendent creative edge is possible only when it is mediated by universal concepts, ideas or as in conception" Isto- modern science when something is subsumable under universal laws of nature. rija ukrainskoji literatury (New Under these conceptions, knowledge of the unique particular is a priori exclud- York: Ukrainian ed. The individual is known only as an instance of the universal concept or as Academy of Arts and Sciences in possessing a universal nature or essence. Both Aristotle and St. Thomas sub- the U.S., 1956) scribed to the transparency thesis which states that nature is transparent to the p. 315. Taras human mind and thus can be known. This is a very optimistic view about human Zakydalsky also calls Skovoroda's cognitive abilities. It is true that a process of abstraction was needed to get at philosophy "an the universal concept or essence but, on their view, it was a fairly perfunctory original synthe- sis". See his "The process of dropping the particular accidents of the individual and getting at the Theory of Man in essence of that which is common to all of the individuals in that genus and the Philosophy of Skovoroda" M.A. species. For Aristotle and St. Thomas the essence of human nature lies in ra- thesis, Bryn tionality and animality. Mawr College, May, 1965, pll. І E.Lashchyk . Skovoroda's Philosophy of Happiness in the Context of Western Philosophy 54 Ε. Lashchyk. SKOVORODA'S PHILOSOPHY OF HAPPINESS... I can't make up my mind whether in Aristotle and St. Thomas their epistemology drives or determines their ontology or vice versa. I would like to argue that Skovoroda's ontology drives his epistemology, that is, that his account of the nature of man, for example, with his unique "srodnost" forces Skovoroda to give some account of how this unique invisible nature can be known. This is a tough assignment since, as I have suggested above, the emphasis in Western Philosophy has been on an account of knowledge of essences via universal concepts obtained by abstraction. Skovoroda breaks here with the dominant West- ern tradition and introduces analogies, metaphors, parables and even fables as tools, as symbols, for getting at the hidden nature of things, including the nature of each human being 2. The use of such metaphoric and symbolic tools may result in a type of faith that God is the source and seed of all natural things including each human being's srodnost'. Such higher type of faith transforms not only the individual but also her world 3. This is a very modern notion which has recently been stressed by such thinkers as Norwood Hanson, Tho- 3 Zakydalsky ar- mas Kuhn 4 and Paul Feyerabend. Their thesis is that belief in certain para- gues that Skovo- roda's account of digm-theories and hypotheses transforms what one sees, that there is no faith (a type of neutral seeing and that all seeing is interpreting. Kuhn went further and knowledge) can claimed that successive paradigm-theories are incommensurable. They are transform the way the world is incommensurable because there is a shift in the values that different scien- or his ontology. tists share; there is a shift in the meaning of terms contained in competing He says "These ... passages assign paradigm-theories; scientists committed to different paradigms live in dif- to faith a power ferent worlds; and finally they see different things when looking at the same to create new being, to transform things. All of this is the result of commitments or faith in different para- man's substance digms. It is easy to see echoes of some of these claims in Skovoroda — the from shadow into multiple worlds thesis, the different readings of the same words when they eternal and per- fect being, into are interpreted analogically or metaphorically, particularly in the Bible, the God.", p.94. way faith transforms what we see when looking at the same natural objects, 4 Thomas Kuhn. the way faith in God or in the material world transforms what we should The Structure of value. Scientific Revolutions,(Chi- In all fairness to Plato, it should be pointed out that Socrates and Plato cago, University were among the first to use analogies, parables and fables as a way of getting of Chicago Press, their messages across about the unseen Forms to their listeners or readers. 1962). Plato however, developed a method for getting at the true definition of any 6 To see how models, analogies and universal Idea or Form such as justice or virtue by using a method called metaphorical division. It is here that Skovoroda is more radical in his approach for he thinking can function as a seems to avoid reduction to a method in his epistemology and his concept heuristic of dis- formation and to rely completely on the metaphorical. Skovoroda does follow covery and creativity in science Plato in the use of the dialogue form and both stayed away from the treatise and even litera- style of exposition. ture see Eugene Lashchyk "Heu- Nili Kornienko, in the recent article, also emphasizes metaphors as a ristics for Scien- way of knowing for Skovoroda. The process of coming to know these hidden tific and Literary Creativity: The natures, she suggests, is similar to coming to know strange hidden phenom- Role of Models, 5 enon in quantum physics and this coming to know requires some sort of Analogies, and Metaphors", Ra- experiment. For example, she says: tionality, Rela- "This (way of knowing) can be tried by the use of metaphors, symbols, tivism, and the metamorphosis, and analogies". 6 Human Sciences. Joseph Margolis Skovoroda's originality lies also, in his account of a vision of man which is (ed.) Martinus Nijhoff, 1986, p.151-185. 2 Dmytro Cyzevs'kyj appears in the It is often diffi- is positive about closer to the es- was one of the continual turning cult to ... unravel coming to know by sence of a 6 N.M.Kornijenko first to have away from the the symbolic co- means of symbol- thing..." "Hryhorij Skovo- stressed Skovoro- idealized, ab- nundrums that are ism. It forces us Fil'osofija roda: hipoteza da's use of the stract, genera] to posed by such a continually to ex- H.S.Skovorody shchastia".· symbolic in his the concrete - to style of reasoning plain, to inter- (Warszawa: 1934), Filosofs'ka і Soci- philosophy. He life, to nature, to ... But, according pret, to analyze: p.26. olohicna Dumka, says: "The symbol- art and to reli- to Skovoroda, this in this manner we Vol.11, 1992, ism of Skovoroda gious traditions... is precisely what are forced to come p.117. 55 Розділ II. ІСТОРІЯ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ ФІЛОСОФІЇ contained in the second of his three worlds called the microcosm. Contained in each 7 Hryhorij Skovo- roda: povne human being is a unique nature which is imprinted by God and lies deep in the inner zibraunia tvoriv heart of each person. Skovoroda's philosophy is thoroughly dualistic and this u dvoch tomach Naukova Dumka, dualism can be seen as well in his account of the microcosm. There are two hearts Kyiv, 1973 Vol.1, in man, the visible outer physical heart is responsible for man's physical drives and p.310. All subse- desires and the invisible inner heart which is the true man in man. God has imprint- quent references to Skovoroda's ed on each inner heart a unique nature with appropriate inclinations and abilities. writings, unless As I have already said earlier, Skovoroda calls this unique nature with which we otherwise noted, will be to the were born "srodnost"' . Here Skovoroda departs radically from the accounts of 1973, Kyiv edi- human nature that we find in Aristotle and St. Thomas. On their accounts man is tion: volume number in Roman a rational animal and these properties are common to each human being. Their numerals, fol- emphasis is on common characteristics and not on the differences that exist among lowed by page numbers in Ara- human beings. There is a troubling passage in Skovoroda's "Dialogue ... On The bic numerals, in- Ancient World" where Lonhyn, one of the characters says: serted in paren- "I could tell you also, that if one knows one man, then he knows them thesis following 7 the passage quot- all ..." . This is a very Aristotelian position and hence troubling for all those ed or referred to, commentators who have claimed that Skovoroda believes in srodnost', that each 8 Filosofia Hryhor- human being is unique.

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