Ethnophilosophical Understanding on the Existence of Ukraine: Methodological Principles

Abstract

The article discusses the methodological foundations of Ukrainian studies, which take on significant existential importance for Ukraine in the conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war. It posits that each nation formulates its own methodology of nation-defensive type, crucial for preserving its identity and distinctiveness. In these circumstances, Ukrainian axiology embodies the triad of native land, native language, and native tradition, attaining a sacred significance. Within the context of hybrid information warfare, mechanisms for creating global terminology, carrying a worldwide ideological load, are uncovered. However, under the guise of «universal» values, they subtly impose themselves on the entire world. Ivan Franko already pointed to such information strategies at the beginning of the 20th century, emphasizing the importance of trusting national thinkers to navigate global traps. The domestic definitions of ethnicity and ethnoculture, ethnoreligion and ethnophilosophy are provided, the fundamental principles of the national-existential methodology are clarified. Using examples of polar social models and archetypal worldview-antagonistic algorithms based on the age-old dichotomy of «world» and «home», it is demonstrated that global and imperial methodologies are unsuitable for ethnological studies. The essence of the «foreign» and the «native» becomes explicitly understood through such algorithms. The methodological foundation for scientific research in the field of Ukrainian studies is proposed to be founded upon ethnophilosophy (the founder of which is considered to be Volodymyr Shayan) as the most appropriate philosophy of the nation-defense type.