The thesis is devoted to investigation of the peculiarity of the work of art as the important validity of social cognition and social practice. The results of social cognition pile up in the theoretical treatises about the physical world in its countless expressions, about social contacts, about interaction of structural elements of the society, about the spiritual world of the society, about the existentiality of the personality. Among the documents of social cognition the considerable spot belong to the belles-lettres. Overcoming of the difficulties, which are linked with the insufficient elaborating of philosophical comprehending of the social cognition, arise very actual in the light of philosophical cogitating of the works of art. The principal object of scientific and artistic cognition is human being as a social subject. That's why the problem of social cognition "becomes overgrown" with considerable material from others overlapping social sciences: cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, culturology, history of science and so on. Before scientists arise the assignment to comprehend the dialectics of the socio-cultural determination of cognition of the reality. And so, come into being the attendant problems of social cognition - reflection, co-relations of the cognition and activity, subject-object and subject-subject interrelations; the public-artistic activity and associating (dialogue); dialectics of social cognition and axiological characteristics of the artistic creation. Actuality of this investigation turns out in the peculiarities of dialectics of individual and social knowledge in the process of coming into being and fixing of new ideas; the spot of social cognition in the system of the artistic mastering of the social world, and also in the co-operation the rational and irrational, scientific and non-scientific factors of social cognition through the prism of the work of art. The authoress emphasizes that in the light of the modern theoretical-cognitive conceptions is absolutely impossible rejecting or disregarding the problem of the interaction of influences of the social cognition and the artistic language, which not only fixes some logical constructions but also reflects the sensitive-emotional sphere. For cogitating of modern civilization's development problems and its subsequent prospects authoress of this thesis has suggested the comparison of Ukrainian realities of "limit's" situation of XIX and XX as well XX and XXI centuries. Hundred years' old events are noted in the numerous theoretical investigations (economical, political, ideological and so on) and reflected in the works of art. Just works of art are the important source for studying the social reality: they have artistic cogitating about the events of that time through the subject-author-creator. The latter is numbered among concrete social group which can have an influence upon his world outlook, his will and the shape of his activity. That's why the work of art is a document of the epoch but in the subjective presentation. The authoress of this thesis demonstrates that social cognition is based on the social practice and is the active process of acquiring of the social life by the different forms of social consciousness. The results of social cognition (specifically scientific literature, publicistic and belles-lettres) reflect in the ideal form the social reality and its objective regularity with the projection on the next social changings and transformations. Works of art become the fact of social reality as a consequence of the human's social activity. The authoress of this thesis arrives at a conclusion that a work of art is a product of the spiritual social process of co-operation between the author-artist and the social environment gets actuality through receiving and losing of a matter: something that author has written (text, fiction) fixes his outlook of realities; something that reader has read become his profit, that is it functions as socio-cultural factor. The authoress of this thesis for the first time has proposedthe comparative analysis of Ivan Franko's and Natalia Kobrynska's works of art in the context of social cognition as factors of socio-cultural realities, influence of them on the spiritual world of future generations. It is especially important nowadays, when independent Ukraine confirms State power and has to use actively the specific spiritual potentiality for the opposing to the foreign anti-humane influences.
