The Civilizational Choice of Ukraine: Questioning the Conceptual Roadmap

Article
Open Access
by Oleg Rafalskyi1
1 Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29202/phil-cosm/30/4
Received: 9 November 2022 / Accepted: 12 December 2022 / Published: 5 February 2023

View Full-Text Review Reports Cite This Paper

Abstract

Modern Ukraine is a post-colonial, post-totalitarian state in which decolonization, decommunization, and de-Russification have not yet been fully implemented. This article sets itself the goal of reviewing the agenda of the processes of civilizational transit of Ukraine and developing theoretically grounded vectors of the said process. The important fact that the current stage of development of the “worldview gravity” of Ukrainian society is characterized by an eclectic system of stereotypes is also of significant importance: here coexist both old stereotypes of consciousness and behavior, which have largely ceased to fulfill their functions, and new ones that are unstable and ambiguous. The series of ideas regarding the Ukrainian civilizational choice was already discovered in a monograph, “Civilizational crossroads of modern society,” and presented for Ukrainian readers a few years ago. The current article offers a revision of the previously presented ideas for the international audience of the journal readers, taking into account the current Ukrainian sociocultural situation, at the center of which are the challenges produced by the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. The policy of new realism can become an effective tool for social modernization. The given word combination is not accidental: the realism of this type of politics insists on the need for the adequate perception of reality in all its essential aspects, and the novelty emphasizes the need to operate not with the laws and features of the socio-political status quo “in general,” but taking into account the latest dynamics, trends, threats, and problematic challenges. The people and the country need not only (and sometimes not so much) a thorough understanding of their cultural-civilizational, geopolitical, and economic-economic prospects but an indomitable character that guarantees the realization of their potential in spite of anything and against anything. On the difficult path of establishing a civilizational choice, Ukrainians will need not only the awareness of the incomplete state of political modernization, the limited, post-totalitarian (post-colonial, etc.) status, but also to work at the individual level to accelerate evolutionary processes. These processes can catalyze political decisions, not at the declarative level but at the practical level, to fill the steps for the approval of the civilizational choice with content. Step-by-step changes in favor of a new worldview horizon will require significant changes at the personal level through the rejection of destructive post-colonial (post-totalitarian, etc.) narratives in social practice in favor of the development of Ukrainian national identity, which will be preceded by the rational assimilation of the perspectives of civilizational choice, which is a fruitful combination of the European civilizational project and heritage of Ukrainian culture.

Keywords: Ukraine, civilizational choice, post-colonialism, idea of Europe, national identity.

References

Evink, E. (2020) The idea of Europe in a post-European era. International Journal of Philosophy and Theology, 81:3, 211-226. https://doi.org/10.1080/21692327.2020.1753094

Jackson, P., and Albrecht, P. (2018) Power, Politics and Hybridity. In Hybridity on the Ground in Peacebuilding and Development: Critical Conversations, 37-49.

Humboldt, W. (1985) On language. Moscow: Progress.

Kalinichenko, B. (2018) Value gaps in the planetary matrix of the world community as a limitrophe of war and peace. EUREKA: Social and Humanities, (2), 67-72. https://doi.org/10.21303/2504-5571.2018.00605

Kloubert, T. (2020) Promoting perspective transformation in post-totalitarian societies. Journal of Transformative Education, 18(1), 8-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344619876274

Kulyk, V. (2016) National Identity in Ukraine: Impact of Euromaidan and the War. Europe-Asia Studies, 68:4, 588-608. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2016.1174980

Lanovenko, O., and Shevchenko, O. (1998) Common Ukrainian-Russian information space as a zone of possible socio-cultural influence on Ukraine. Strategic Panorama, 1998, No. 3-4, 164-167.

Magda, Ye. (2015) Hybrid War: Survive and Defeat. Vivat Publishing.

Mälksoo, M. (2022) The Postcolonial Moment in Russia’s War Against Ukraine. Journal of Genocide Research, e2074947. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2022.2074947

Moore, D. C. (2001) Is the Post- in Post-colonial the Post- in Post-Soviet? Toward a Global Post-colonial Critique. PMLA, 116(1), 111–128. http://www.jstor.org/stable/463645

Muradov, I. (2022) The Russian hybrid warfare: the cases of Ukraine and Georgia. Defence Studies, 22:2, 168-191. https://doi.org/10.1080/14702436.2022.2030714

Mykhailich, O. (2008) Language and regional identities as factors of differentiation of Ukrainian society. Political management, No. 6, 139-150. Available online: http://nbuv.gov.ua/UJRN/PoMe_2008_6_15

Partlett, W., and Küpper, H. (2022) Chapter 1: Post-colonialism and post-socialist constitutional change. In The Post-Soviet as Post-Colonial. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 7-35. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802209440.00007

Pyrozhkov, S., and Khamitov, N. (2016) Civilizational choice of Ukraine in the globalized world. Mirror of the week, No. 28. August 13. Available online: https://zn.ua/ukr/internal/civilizaciyniy-vibir-ukrayini-v-globalizovanomu-sviti-yakiy-civilizaciyniyvibir-robit-ukrayinu-ne-ob-yektom-a-sub-yektom-geopolitik-_.html

Rafalskiy, O., and Samchuk Z. (2018) Civilizational crossroads of modern society. Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the NAS of Ukraine.

Rozdobudko, I. (2013) Ukrainian Taganrog. Week, June 14. Available online: https://tyzhden.ua/History/82144

Tava, F. (2016) Phenomenology and the idea of Europe: introductory remarks. Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 47:3, 205-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071773.2016.1180851

Yermolenko, V. (2021) Atypical Post-Colonialism: Ukraine in Global Political Thought. Ukraine Analytica, 02 (24), 19-25.

Share and Cite

Rafalskyi, Oleg (2022) The Civilizational Choice of Ukraine: Questioning the Philosophical Roadmap. Philosophy and Cosmology, Vol. 30, 42-52. https://doi.org/10.29202/phil-cosm/30/4
Back to the list of Articles