Whether «philosophy after Bucha» is possible: philosophical and theological considerations

Abstract

The article analyses the problem of the current state of philosophy in the context of Russian aggression against Ukraine. It is argued that contemporary philosophers are faced with the question: «How is philosophy possible after Bucha?». It is argued that, on the one hand, this questioning and situation is in many ways similar to similar discourses on «philosophy after Auschwitz» and «philosophy after the Gulag», and on the other hand, it shows a number of ideological and moral flaws in modern society and politics that made this question possible. Another consequence is the failure to learn the lessons of history, which leads to the emergence and growth of new totalitarian leaders who are ready to start wars to achieve their goals, which in the future threaten to escalate to the level of a new World War or the use of nuclear arsenals. Thus, there are grounds to state that not only international organisations such as the UN and the Red Cross are unable to resist authoritarianism and totalitarianism, but also that the worldview and value positions on which their activities are based are ineffective.

Particular attention is paid to the theological aspects of this problem, the peculiarities of its formulation and solution by contemporary theologians. The authors analyse the criticism by Ukrainian intellectuals-philosophers of the prejudices of the Western philosophical establishment, touch upon the doctrine of the «Russian world» as a civil religion with its corresponding dogmas, and finally offer some philosophical conclusions that, in the authors’ opinion, formulate, if not new imperatives, as they somewhat pretentiously call them, then at least new significant accents that Ukraine brings to the world philosophical sphere. Thus, Ukrainian scholars of the social sciences and humanities face a crucial task, not just to reflect or comprehend the reality of life «under the bombs», but to formulate new imperatives that can become the basis for a new post-war philosophy, politics and culture.

This project has received funding through the MSCA4Ukraine project, which is funded by the European Union.