Logic lessons for Russia: Kiev’s theology and the Russian Enlightenment

Abstract

he paper argues that the philosophy that was taught in Orthodox schools of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in late 16th - early 17th century and then became the ideological basis for the Moscow “Latinism” can be attributed to so-called Second scholasticism. he main features of Second scholasticism are the rejection of predestination in theology, usage of probabilistic approaches in logic and ethics and confrontation with absolutism in politics. hese features made Second scholasticism unacceptable for absolute monarchies emerging in Europe (including the Russian Empire) which utilized universal rationalism of the early Enlightenment as an ideological basis. Both in Western Europe and in Russia Second scholasticism became “a zone of cultural exclusion”. However prevalence of Second scholasticism in Orthodox schools of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth concurred with making up of the Ukrainian cultural originality and in many respects deined characteristic features of the Ukrainian mentality.