Karlov O. Philosophy of History as a Field of Knowledge: Semantic and Meaning-Related Features

Based on the research findings, the disciplinary vocation of the philosophy of history as an epistemological field is summarized – in particular and above all through the prism of the semantic and significational features of the knowledge it generates. In particular, the study characterizes factuality as the point of reflective reference for the philosophy of history: the disciplinary vocation of the philosophy of history is not linked to the accumulation of historical facts or even to their systematization, but with the identification of the internal logic of the historical process that determines the emergence of any other facts, reflection on which delineates the disciplinary scope and the sphere of epistemological and gnoseological competence of the philosophy of history. The key challenge of the “end of history” era for Ukraine in the realm of epistemological meanings and significance has been identified: Ukraine has adopted a worldview hierarchy that, in many respects, is inconsistent with the principle of realism and, to some extent, with common sense. The crux of the problem lies in the fact that such an inadequate litmus test of worldview is incapable of fulfilling the instrumental function of both correctly perceiving the past and formulating effective responses to the challenges of the present, which, in turn, calls into question the effectiveness of the functioning of the state and society. The main shortcomings of historical and social memory have been identified through the prism of the characteristics of the spheres of knowledge they generate: while doubts regarding the scientific reliability of historical memory are linked to its incompleteness, fragmentary nature, and difficulties in verification, the difficulties in conforming to the canons of social memory is primarily and mainly due to its sociocultural, ideological, political, propagandistic, and other burdens, and consequently – to latent bias and prejudice, which are incompatible with the requirements imposed on scientific knowledge. The conceptual proposition regarding the substantive demarcation of the philosophy of history and history – as disciplinary fields related by epistemological and gnoseological criteria – has been further developed: while the research priority of history is a meticulous examination of a specific applied historical case, and its as-accurate-as-possible reconstruction at the event-process level, then the key research lens of the philosophy of history is the unwavering adherence to the credo sub specie aeternitatis – that is, the perception of the particulars of historical reality from the perspective of eternity as a significant and even defining context: outside this context, history either does not exist at all as a subject area worthy of attention for philosophically centered thinking, or the significance of such history is substantially devalued, marginalized, and relegated to the distant periphery of attention.