Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Introduction. Symon Budny is an outstanding Eastern Slavic humanist thinker of the Early Modern era, one of the first Eastern Slavic translators of the Bible (1570, in Polish), its commentator and publisher. His figure should be considered as one of the most significant in the reformation movement in the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In his writings, Budny tried to justify the need to renew the prevailing religion, morality, and some social institutions, in particular, law and the judiciary. Speaking with reformation ideas (at first Calvinist, and later antitrinitarian ideas), Budny was recognized as a dangerous heretic in the conservative-Orthodox, Uniate and counter-reformation traditions. Their representatives noted that the work of the humanist is the source of heresies that spread in Central-Eastern Europe during the 16th century. The related nature of Budny's ideas and ideologues of various Protestant currents was already noted by his contemporaries. The thinker mastered the ancient Slavic philosophical and ethical tradition, ideologically adopted the main elements of Francisk Skoryna's work and made an attempt to synthesize all this with Western European philosophical culture and public opinion. With his work, he contributed to the development of the humanistic direction of religious and philosophical thought, a national tradition in the history of the Eastern European peoples who inhabited the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Symon Budny, as a humanist thinker, addressed the problems of man and society in his work and tried to find their solution on the basis that differed from the dogmatic Christian one. Central, in the ideological legacy of Budny, is precisely the ethical point. One of the most important for him is the question of how a person should live, what moral and ethical values and ideals to profess, so that his personal and social life does not contradict his conscience. The ideological, scientific, and literary level of Budny's creativity clearly demonstrates the high general level of cultural development of the peoples of the Eastern European region in the 16th century. The traditional way of philosophizing in the specified historical period was commenting on the texts of the Holy Scriptures. Budny, as a thinker, is characterized by his attempt at a humanistic interpretation of biblical texts. In his writings, he sought to justify and substantiate the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance era about the religious and moral autonomy of a person, his dignity, which is determined not so much by origin or social position, but by intellectual and moral virtues, personal merits, with the help of biblical texts; preferred an active and practical life to a contemplative one; about patriotism as one of the most important social characteristics of a person, etc. It is on the basis of the analysis of Simon Budnogai's work that we singled out the main moral and ethical characteristics of the ideal of man as seen by the thinker. Purpose. To analyze the original religious and philosophical ideas of Simon Budny in order to highlight the main ethical principles of spirituality and morality of the individual in them. Methods. In the process of studying the philosophical and ethical ideas of Simon Budny, various general research methods were employed (e.g.: analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization),which have made it possible to observe the principles of his scientific approach, objectivity and historicism. Results. The moral-philosophical orientation of Budny's creativity led to the circumstance that questions of ethics occupy a central place in his works. Budny, as a humanist thinker, addressed in his creativity the problems of individuals and society and attempted to find their solution, which differs from dogmatic-Christian. Budny's characteristic is an attempt to interpret a whole series of biblical plots in the spirit of Protestant humanism. The thinker asserts the intrinsic value of human life, rehabilitates earthly existence. Budny's reflections on the meaning of human life and the highest good are of great interest. He is interested in the individual, their spiritual world, intellect, morality, and social purpose. Budny seeks to find a certain universal rational-moral principle, acceptable to all people regardless of social status and religious affiliation, by which social life could be regulated. In consonance with the philosophical outlook of the ancient thinkers, Budny poses the task of self-awareness for individuals. A perfect intellectual-moral personality serves as his ethical ideal. At the center of Budny's attention is one of the most important philosophical-ethical problems — the problem of the relationship between individual and societal good. The thinker was the founder of the national-patriotic tradition in the culture history of Eastern European peoples and social thought. Сonclusion. The ideas of Symon Budny remain a valuable source for understanding the ways of shaping the national culture of the Eastern European peoples at the Early Modern era. Many of these ideas have become the foundation for the formation of the Ukrainian national educational idea, elements of the human ideal rooted in our pedagogical tradition, which unites it with the European humanistic idea.
Author: Павло Біліченко
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4405796567