What is Ukrainian Philosophy?

This article adds to the existing descriptive and generalizing studies of the specifics of Ukrainian philosophy an attempt to analyse it. This study examines in which aspects philosophy can be carried out as a national tradition of philosophizing. It is argued that the national peculiarities of philosophy can manifest themselves in the choice of (1) the topic of philosophizing, (2) the standards of logical rigor of philosophical thinking, and (3) certain philosophical methods and forms of thought development. Linguistic and geographical criteria for determining belonging of a philosopher to a national philosophical tradition are analysed and the heuristic limits of these criteria are shown. It is argued that not only personal, but also national peculiarities of this or that philosophizing may exist. These national peculiarities must be connected with the historically formed cultural traditions of this or that nation, in particular with the existing practices of the functioning of philosophy in the society and in its education system. It is also shown that the formation of national specificity of one or another philosophizing is caused by the challenges a given nation faced during its historical development. The study argues that there are two features, the combined presence of which is the sufficient condition for determining any philosophical thought as a Ukrainian philosophical thought. First, this thought must be created in the context of Ukrainian traditions of philosophizing, which manifests itself in using certain philosophical methods and forms of thought development. Second, this thought must be a response to the historical challenges the Ukrainian people faced. It is suggested that not all manifestations of philosophizing in Ukraine can be called Ukrainian philosophical thought. Those manifestations, which do not suffice both the first and the second of the mentioned features, are suggested to be labelled as "philosophy in Ukraine" and not as "Ukrainian philosophy". The study shows that the national specificity of philosophizing manifests itself most clearly in such philosophical areas as political philosophy, social philosophy, and ethics. This study also determines what unites Ukrainian philosophy with European philosophy.