Skaryna was a spokesman for the spiritual needs of the progressive-minded citizens of Belarus, in whose worldview, under the influence of economic, socio-political and cultural shifts, there has been some departure from the orthodox feudal-church ideas of his time. At the same time, a number of Skorinin's ideals and values ​​are of a universal nature. The originality of Skaryna's philosophical and ethical views manifested itself in the synthesis of medieval Christian, ancient and Renaissance humanistic ideas. They were significantly influenced by the ancient Russian folk-ethical and aesthetic, as well as literary and philosophical tradition. Biblical-Christian ethics is modernized and adapted by Skaryna in accordance with the ideological needs of the Renaissance, the current socio-political and national-cultural tasks of the Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian peoples. In the center of his attention was the problem of man and society. Skorina considered and resolved the issues of the meaning of life, the spiritual world, the dignity of a person, the origin of moral ideas, spiritual and moral freedom, the common and individual good, civic activity, etc. . He made an attempt to revise the orthodox Christian interpretation of the problem of human existence, according to which the earthly life of a person is only a preparation for the life beyond. He affirmed the inherent value of human life, rehabilitated earthly existence, but did not deny faith in the afterlife. The ethics of Skaryna orients a person mainly to a real, socially useful earthly life, serving the "pospolitome", constant intellectual and moral improvement, "having learned wisdom," people "are good tenacious in the world." Skorina considered the problems of the meaning of life and the highest good in the prefaces to the books "Proverbs of Solomon", "Jesus Sirakhov", "Ecclesiastes", etc. In the preface to the book "Proverbs of Solomon" Skorina argued that the main purpose of a person is to improve earthly life, the object of - the problem "how to imati be right and live in this world". Skaryna was sympathetic to the real, earthly sea of ​​people, at the same time opposing it with a moral ideal, which he uses as a humanistically modernized Christian-ethical concept of life. For Skaryna, the highest good - earthly good - is an intellectually rich, morally perfect and socially useful life on earth, first of all, serving people, and then God or serving God through serving people, the common good. Skaryna focuses on the spiritual world of a person, his values, ideals, vocation. “Let the man of God be perfect,” he postulates, “and prepared for every good work,” as the holy Apostle Paul writes. And for this sake, the holy letters are filled with the essence of our teaching, correction, spiritual and bodily, various customs.

Skaryna's ethical concept is based on the idea of ​​the need and possibility of continuous improvement of human nature, on which the perfection of human life depends. He affirmed the ideal of a thinking, intellectually aspiring person. He interpreted intellectual and moral virtues as an acquisition, the result of an active creative, cognitive and socio-practical activity of a person. nor wealth", but "wisdom and understanding". Skaryna's ideal was a man who combined biblical and philosophical wisdom, "full of the Holy Spirit and philosophy." “Wisdom,” he writes, “supposedly power in a precious stone, and like gold in the earth, and a kernel in a nut. Whoever knows [her], this know mercy and will get a blessing from the Lord, and all good things will come to him with her Praise and honor are her countless motions - she is the mother of all good speeches and a teacher of every good skill.

Turning to the inner world of a person, caring about his intellectual moral virtues, Skaryna asserted one of the Renaissance-humanistic principles, according to which the true dignity and nobility of a person is not in origin, nobility, social status and not in religious zeal, but in such qualities as intelligence , moral character, abilities, thanks to which he brings real benefits to society. The Belarusian thinker seeks to find out the origin of human moral ideas. According to Skaryna, the concepts of morality have a dual basis: individual reason and divine revelation. Moreover, the natural moral law has priority: "before all laws or written rights, the law is born, it is given to all people from the Lord God to eat." The basic postulate of "born", ie. of the natural moral law, deduced by the thinker from the mind, is formulated by the following gospel saying: "Repair to others everything that you yourself like from others, and do not repair that to others, which you yourself did not have from others." On this moral principle, Skorina believes, all "written" moral laws, including biblical ones, are based. Skaryna, therefore, seeks to find some universal, rational moral principle, acceptable to all people, regardless of social status and religious affiliation, on the basis of which social life could be regulated. .

The written source of moral norms, according to Skaryna, is mainly the Bible. From the religious and ethical teachings of Skaryna, it follows that a person through the Bible carries out a direct and intimate dialogue with God; he independently, without church mediation, can understand the moral and ethical meaning of "divine revelation" and achieve moral perfection. The initial provisions of morality in the view of Skaryna act as a command of moral duty and conscience. Skaryna substantiated the idea of ​​a person's personal responsibility for his actions. The religious and moral position of Skaryna can be qualified as a manifestation of Renaissance individualism, which affirmed the morality of internal thoughts as opposed to the official church morality of afterlife retribution. Skaryna seeks to reveal in religion not its external, dogmatically ritual side, to comprehend its inner essence, mainly philosophical and ethical, to comprehend some of the fundamental universal moral values ​​accumulated by Christianity.

Skaryna poses and solves one of the most important philosophical and ethical problems - the ratio of the individual and the common good. The thinker considers man as a social being, and his ethics is characterized by the assertion of the primacy of the common good over the individual. In the preface to the Book of Esther, Skaryna formulates the concept of public duty as follows: "Not only was he born into the world, but more to the service of God and the good of the Commonwealth." Skaryna also considered his own activities, first of all, as serving the common good ("good Commonwealth"), as the fulfillment of his duty to the people, "brothers of Russia" and the motherland. This idea is emphasized by him in almost every preface and afterword. From Skaryna's ethical teaching, it indirectly followed that people, first of all, should be united by the idea of ​​the common good.

The most characteristic feature of Skaryna's ethical and humanistic worldview is patriotism. Skaryna was the founder of the national-patriotic tradition in the history of Belarusian culture and social thought. The patriotic beginning in Skaryna's worldview is the result of concretization of the idea of ​​the "common good". It develops in line with the traditions of ancient Russian culture.

Justifying his activity with the interests of the “pospolite of the Commonwealth,” the Belarusian humanist constantly specifies its focus: “Sick for that reason, like the merciful God from that language let me into the world.” Skorina expressed his patriotism, love for his homeland in the following wonderful words: and people, where they were born and nourished, according to the Bose, have a great caress to that place ". The ethics of Skaryna, thus, brought up a citizen and patriot in a person, formed in him the qualities necessary for active social and practical activities for the benefit of his people.

Skaryna does not absolutize the "common good" to the detriment of the "individual good", but tries to harmoniously solve the problem of the relationship between these two moral and ethical virtues. In order to be useful to society, to contribute to its improvement, improvement, preservation of value, a person must constantly develop his spirituality, cultivate in himself the moral qualities necessary for social life. According to Christian ethics, Skaryna considers love to be the most important moral virtue of a person. “Every Christian,” writes the thinker, “let him observe the greatest love for everyone, if he eats perfect over all other talents, without it, nothing eats hastily.” The affirmation of an active, socially useful worldly life as an ideal was an expression of the self-consciousness of the trade and craft strata of the urban population, and was one of the moments of the emerging early bourgeois ideology of the Renaissance.

Francysk Skaryna stood at the origins of the national Renaissance-humanistic socio-political thought. He tried to define some ideal political and legal forms, borrowed mainly from the history of the ancient world. Bible. The political ideal of Skaryna is enlightened, humane and strong monarchical power. Skorina also assessed social relations with the evangelical-Christian abstract-humanistic principles of philanthropy and justice. Human society is based on peace and harmony, "from it all good things come to every city and every assembly, bad weather destroys even the largest kingdoms." Skaryna propagated the ideas of early Christian philanthropy, urged people to treat "helping each other with all love." He was aware of the difference between the real social reality of his era and the ideal.

As a social ideal, Skaryna asserted the early Christian principle "equal freedom for all, having a common name for all." Skaryna's social ideal testifies to the influence of radical reformist ideas on his worldview. It is characterized by social democracy. The thinker was guided by "simple people, commonwealth."

So, the outstanding merit of F. Skaryna is in posing the problem of man and society in the socio-philosophical thought of Belarus of the Renaissance and in an attempt to solve this problem in the spirit of Renaissance humanism. At the same time, it should be noted the abstract nature of Skorinin's interpretation of this problem and the insufficiently clear connection of his teaching with concrete historical reality. aesthetic outlook.

Skaryna attached great importance to aesthetic education and, in general, to the spiritual improvement of people by means of art. This is evidenced by his panegyric "Psalms" - a book that of all parts of the Bible is closer to art - poetry and music. According to the thinker, it is ambiguous in its content and functional purpose. Songs and poems of her "all sorts of infirmities, spiritual and bodily, heal, illuminate the soul and meanings, pacify anger and rage, mend peace and tranquility, drive away confusion and sadness, give feeling in prayers, lead people to sit down, strengthen the shop and mercy"; they are "quiet fuss and robots, the protector of the maddah and the joy of the old, fun and song, pious prayer for wives, every good ear of science for small children, growth in science for grown-ups, fashionable affirmation for men"; adorns the psalm and sacredly" and "to soften the cruel heart", it "together amuse the body with singing and teach the soul". This contains the thinker's guess about the semantic ambiguity and multifunctionality of art, in contrast to the semantic unambiguity of scientific logical judgments. Skorina is convinced of the comprehensive educational impact of poetry and music and the corresponding richness of aesthetic experience. He considered the "Psalter" as a work of art, so his assessment can be rightfully transferred to artistic creativity in general. Skaryna tries to overcome the Christian-medieval teaching about beauty as a category predominantly divine. He seeks to discover the beautiful mainly in the person himself, interpreting beauty as a harmony of moral-intellectual and civic virtues Skaryna is characterized by the aestheticization of human cognitive activity.

Skaryna's beauty is identical with kind philanthropy, justice, public good, citizenship and patriotism. On the basis of the merger of the ethical, socio-political and aesthetic, Skaryna solves the problem of the ideal. The thinker seeks to create an ideal image of a person, a citizen, a statesman, a military leader, to form an idea of ​​the ideal law, state and social system. He uses the creative principle of the Renaissance artists, who put actual socio-political and aesthetic content into biblical images and allegories, and solved new artistic and aesthetic tasks with their help.

Beautiful in Skaryna are not only the human spirit, mind, virtues, but also to some extent the physical nature of a person, his health and, in general, the beauty of the material world. Arguing, for example, about earthly, real human life, the thinker is rather tolerant of a person's desire to take care of "health, beauty and strength of the body." Although “bodily beauty” does not play such a big role for Skaryna as spiritual beauty, nevertheless, emphasizing this moment indicates a certain departure from medieval asceticism and the influence of hedonistic ethics and aesthetics of the Renaissance on it. State-legal views.

New legal ideas about state (people's) sovereignty and the unity of law for the entire state and all people who preached Skaryna, are clearly reflected in his writings and were taken into account to a certain extent in the texts of the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1529. Skaryna adhered to the idea of ​​the supremacy of the people in the state and law-making. He believed that "the rights of the zemstvo, hedgehog single every people with their the elders praised the essence nearby, as if they saw life more blindly" (2, p. 137-138]. The thought expressed by Skaryna about the primacy of the people, national sovereignty is clearly visible in his words that "to the right of any assembly of people and any city, if by faith, by the union of kindness and good fortune, good things are multiplied. "Only a state or a city in which citizens live in harmony and take care of common interests, according to Skaryna, will flourish.

Proclaiming new ideas about legislation, it is necessary for the law to be “respectable, just, possible, necessary, prosperous next to birth, a servant of the customs of the earth, an hour and a place suitable, obviously having no closeness in itself, not for the belongings of a single person, but written for the Commonwealth good ". This record contains a whole set of legal principles based on the theory of natural law. The law must be enforceable, useful to the people, and appropriate to the customs, the time, and the place.

Skaryna's views on the classification of law are of interest. He believed that law should be divided according to the source into natural and written. According to Skaryna, natural law is inherent in every person equally, and everyone is or is endowed from birth, regardless of class and estate. He divided written law into divine, ecclesiastical and zemstvo. Zemstvo law was subdivided depending on social relations, regulated by certain norms. In the preface to the book "Second Law" Skaryna wrote: "The law born in that we observe most painfully: then fix to everyone else what you yourself like to eat from everyone else, and don't fix it to others, which you yourself don't want to have from others. This law is born it is written in the heart of one single person. And before all laws or written rights, the law born to all people from the Lord God is given to eat ". In itself, the fact of preferring the natural law of the Bible to canon law testifies to the humanistic views of Skaryna and his free-thinking. During the period of feudalism, the theory of natural law was an ideological weapon directed against class inequality and the oppression of ordinary people.

Zemstvo law Skaryna divided into: Commonwealth, which includes the norms of civil and family law "like a husband and wife, honorable service, sawing children, close-living convergence of speech, a slanderous obsession, rejection of violence by force, equal freedom for all, common property for all"; international, which Skaryna called "pagan, from many ubo languages ​​it is praised"; state and criminal (royal); "ritserskoe or military, hedgehog observed in the war"; urban, maritime and commercial (merchant) law.

This division of law greatly contributed to the development of not only legal theory, but also codification practice. A similar classification was applied in the preparation of the Statute of 1529.

Skaryna also spoke on one of the most important issues of criminal law - the purpose of punishment. In his opinion, the purpose of criminal punishment is the elimination of the criminal: "And the essence of law, or the law, was imposed for evil people, anyhow fearing execution, they pacified their courage and had no other ushkoditi, and anyhow a good boundary and evil could live in chambers" .

An analysis of the main state-legal ideas of Skaryna allows us to conclude that he has progressive humanistic views and a significant contribution made to legal science, especially to the theory of state and law. A comparison of Skaryna's legal ideas and the content of the Statute of 1529 allows us to conclude that some of his ideas are practically implemented in legislation, which, in turn, suggests his possible participation in the development of the Statute of 1529.

Worldview thought of the Renaissance. F. Skorina A turning point in the development of the Belarusian national spirituality and culture was the deployment of on the Belarusian lands of the pan-European processes of the Renaissance. The direct representatives of the Renaissance culture were scientists, philosophers, writers, artists, book publishers, teachers, doctors. It is in their midst that a new, humanistic worldview is affirmed and developed, the basis of which is “the teachings about freedom, or about the great possibilities of man in relation to the world, himself, knowledge, creativity, the idea of ​​the inherent value of human life, or revivalist anthropocentrism, where the main thing is not a problem of reward beyond the grave, but the earthly destiny of a person; naturalism as a predominant way of interpreting natural and social reality and man”1. Francysk Skaryna (c. 1490-1541) is the most prominent figure of the Belarusian Renaissance. He owns an important worldview idea about the inseparable unity of universal human values, which in this era took the form of Christian-humanistic values, with the values ​​of the national life of Belarusians. 1Padokshyn, S.A. Belarusian Dumka at the Kantex Pstorp i Culture / S.A. Padokshyn. Mshsk, 2003. S. 70. Rethinking such philosophical and religious and moral concepts as faith, love, justice, the common good, individual and social duty, moral and legal law, theory and practice, Skaryna, according to the famous Belarusian philosopher S .BUT. Podokshina, not only humanizes them, but also ensures their national concretization, interpretation in accordance with the special conditions of life of Belarusians. It was Skorina who affirmed in the minds of our compatriots the humanistic meaning of national-patriotic values ​​expressed by a person's love for his homeland, his language, and the cultural traditions of his people. Having deeply analyzed the work of Skaryna, S.A. Podokshin notes that this outstanding son of the Belarusian people significantly developed and enriched the Byzantine-Orthodox idea of ​​catholicity, substantiated the personalistic concept of man in a new way.

Expanding the boundaries of south-dividual spiritual freedom, he affirmed the human right to knowledge and creativity, coupled with personal moral responsibility for the actions performed. This personalistic attitude was already inherent in the upper strata of Belarusian society, whose rights were secured by grand ducal and royal charters, and then by the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Orthodox brotherhoods in the Belarusian lands had a significant impact on religious life, independently interpreting the Holy Scriptures. The personalistic tendency is partly connected with the influence of the Reformation, but mainly due to the fact that for a long time religious tolerance was the norm of life in Belarus. In the texts of Skaryna, as the researchers note, there are no terms "Orthodoxy" and "Catholicism"; they are talking about Christianity in general, i.e. about the common thing that unites and reconciles representatives of various branches of Christianity. The idea of ​​religious tolerance was then legally enshrined in the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and dominated until the Catholicization of Belarusians and their forced transfer to Uniatism began. Skaryna made important conclusions about the rule of law and the need to strengthen the legal foundations of state life. In affirming the natural origin of law, he first of all compares it with morality. Skaryna's worldview as a whole is characterized by a clearly expressed ethical dominant, which also affects his decision on the attitude of Belarusians to the cultural values ​​of the Orthodox East and the Catholic West. Skorina sees the solution of a significant issue for the fate of the Belarusian people in the ways of implementing a cultural synthesis that excludes any kind of coercion. The assimilation of the achievements of Western science and the education system, he believes, should be connected with the Christian value system.

Translating the Bible into his native language, accompanying this translation with numerous prefaces and comments, Skaryna emphasizes the educational and patriotic orientation of all her activities, dictated by the desire to accustom all Belarusians to the spiritual and moral richness of the texts of Holy Scripture. Commenting on these texts and simultaneously expounding her own socio-philosophical views, Skorina, as it were, revives the Aristotelian concept of the common good, associated with the recognition of the need to achieve social agreement regarding the basic values ​​of social life. Skorina's personalism is not identical to individualism; he sees the vocation of the individual in the conscious service to the "good commonwealth", i.e. the common good of the people.

1. Belarusian education and reformation. F. Skorina, S. Budny, S. Polotsky, K. Narbut and others.
2. Philosophical ideas of the national movement of the XIX-XX centuries.

Literature

1. Belarusian education and reformation. F. Skorina, S. Budny, S. Polotsky, K. Narbut and others.

Francysk Skaryna (1490?-1541?). The views of F. Skaryna can be judged by his prefaces and afterwords, in which the author sought, with the help of biblical texts, to introduce ordinary people to literacy and knowledge, to justify and substantiate the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance about the religious and moral autonomy of a person, his dignity, based not on origin and social status, but on personal intellectual and moral virtues, citizenship and patriotism.

Ontology and epistemology. In his views on the origin of the world, F. Skorina, as a deeply believing Christian, adheres to the theological concept of creationism, according to which the world and man were created by God “out of nothing”. He does not consider the problem of being in detail. Questions of knowledge of God occupy F. Skaryna to a greater extent. This circumstance is connected with his interpretation of the Bible. In this regard, the problem of being acquires for him not an ontological, but rather an epistemological aspect. In the "Legend to the first books of Moses, recommended by Being" F. Skorina argues that of all the books of the Old Testament, the books of Genesis are the most difficult to understand. Their knowledge is available only to a select few, for all other people the questions of the creation of the world are the subject of faith.

The greater part of the Bible can be known both logically and by an applied method, knowledge "in plain sight." F. Skorina here is a follower of K. Turovsky and K. Smolyatich, who asserted the human right to a thorough understanding of the meaning of biblical texts.

F. Skorina in every possible way distinguishes between faith and knowledge. In particular, he singles out biblical wisdom and philosophical wisdom, which he understood as knowledge of things. In this, he appears as a successor to the ideas of the supporters of "dual truth" (a philosophical doctrine that distinguishes between faith and reason, divine truth and scientific truth).

The Bible for F. Skaryna is not only the unconditional authority of faith, but also an invaluable object of knowledge, a source of secular knowledge (natural science, historical and legal, philosophical), a guide for studying the seven liberal arts (grammar, logic, rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy). But the Bible is not the only source of knowledge. Knowledge is given by God in "many and different ways".

In the "Small road book" F. Skorina appears before us as an astronomer. He introduces amendments to the Julian calendar, determines the time of entry of the Sun into each constellation of the zodiac, reports six lunar and one solar eclipses.

Having remarked that the issues of biblical ontology are difficult to understand, agreeing with the creationist formulation of the origin of the world, F. Skorina, distinguishing between faith and knowledge, comes to the conclusion that it is necessary for the "commonwealth" person to master wisdom and sciences.

Teaching about man. The philosophical positions of F. Skaryna are clearly anthropocentric in nature and generally coincide with the tradition of the Renaissance. The scientist considers man as a rational, moral and social being. Claiming that every person from birth has equal rights, F. Skorina focuses on the issues of his moral perfection, the meaning of life and dignity, freedom, civic engagement, common and individual good. The scientist revises the medieval Christian doctrine of the meaning of human existence, where earthly life does not represent a value in itself, but is only a stage to eternal life. Speaking about the meaning of life, he emphasizes the multivariance of life positions and value orientations of a person. Being sympathetic to the real morality of a person, F. Skorina opposes morality to it as a sphere of due, directs the "commonwealth" person to an active socially useful life. He believes that people from birth are endowed with the same inclinations. Human dignity must be judged not by origin, but by moral and intellectual qualities, by what benefit this or that person has brought to his “homeland”.

The moral ideal of F. Skaryna is a humanistic-Christian concept of life, in the center of which is the concept of good. According to F. Skaryna, a reasonable, moral and socially useful life of a person is the highest good. F. Skaryna has priority in social thought, in posing and solving the problem of "man - society". Deciding the question of the ratio of the common good (the "commonwealth" good) and the individual, he strongly prefers the first. Man is a social being, and only in society can he realize himself. In this regard, a person is simply obliged to learn to “live together” (together, in society). Only the idea of ​​the common good can unite people.

On the other hand, F. Skorina constantly talks about the need for continuous improvement of human nature, which will contribute to the harmonization of social life. Following Socrates and Plato, Skorina argues that a virtuous person is equivalent to a knowledgeable person. This meant that virtue could be taught and, in this regard, the moral ideal was realistically achievable.

Giving unconditional priority to spiritual values, F. Skorina, as a thinker of the Renaissance, does not oppose them to the values ​​of carnal, earthly joys, but advocates the need for harmony between the spiritual and the earthly.

F. Skorina considers philanthropy to be the highest principle of relations between people. It is noteworthy that he extends this norm of human relations not only to Christians, but also to representatives of other faiths. In this regard, philanthropy acquires in him a universal universal character.

He is also the founder of the national-patriotic tradition in the history of social thought. F. Skorina is a patriot of his homeland. He proved this by his selfless activity for the good of the homeland. Medieval thinking was known to be cosmopolitan. For F. Skorina, the interests of her people are higher than religious ones. Love for the motherland is expressed by F. Skorina in an elegantly literary form: birds flying through the air know their nests; fish swimming in the sea and in the rivers smell their own vira; bees and the like harrow their hives; it is the same with people, and where they were born and nourished, according to the Bose, to that place they have a great caress.

Thus, F. Skorina considers a person mainly from the moral side. Its main purpose is to do good deeds for others, to serve the common good. Only in this case does a person realize himself as a member of society.

Political and legal views. F. Skorina stood at the origins of the so-called bourgeois legal worldview. He understood that religion is a powerful regulator of social life. However, in the conditions of the formation of new social relations, it clearly could not cope with the role of an unconditional social regulator, which it was in the Middle Ages. New socio-economic conditions required new mechanisms for managing society. According to F. Skorina, law should be such a mechanism.

He distinguishes between unwritten and written laws. At first, people lived according to the unwritten laws of mutual trust and justice. Only with the complication of social relations do written laws arise. From the foregoing, we can conclude that F. Skorina is a supporter of the theory of "natural law", which was understood as a set of eternal and unchanging principles, rules, values ​​arising from human nature itself. These natural, unwritten laws figure in him under the name "natural law." According to F. Skorina, “natural law” should be the fundamental basis of written law, which, being a human institution, is not formed among peoples simultaneously and primarily depends on the level of development of forms of state life. He considers law itself in interconnection and unity with morality, since they have a single basis - a “born” law, written by God “in the heart of a single person” and imprinted in his mind.

Following the tradition of ancient philosophy: for a sage, the right is superfluous because he does, out of his own conviction, what others do under fear of the law, F. Skorina argued that a moral person can do without legal laws. For laws and law, F. Skorina puts forward a number of mandatory criteria that are still relevant today. The law should be “honorable, just, possible, necessary, sustenance, near birth, servant of the customs of the earth, convenient to the hour and place, obvious, not having closeness in itself, not to the belongings of a single person, but written to the Commonwealth good.” The law will be respected in society if it is fair. An unjust law embitters a person, allows him to be permanently (permanently) violated. Justice (from lat. justitia), thus, in F. Skorina acquires the status of an ethical and legal category.

Justice and the common good in F. Skaryna are not only ethical concepts, but also universal legal categories. Here the author expresses a brilliant conjecture of the possible coincidence of law and law on the basis of justice (justice), the common good and reason.

From a practical point of view, such a formulation of the issue ensured humane legal proceedings, which, according to F. Skorina, are based on the same justice. The thinker also claims that a judge needs to be not only a highly moral and impassive professional, but also an adviser. Long before the emergence of detailed legal theories in Europe, F. Skorina declares law and law to be the basis for the harmonious development of society. Lawlessness, imperfect justice destroy the public peace. Lawlessness is the greatest social vice and is comparable only to the concept of sin, therefore it is God's punishment. Law is the greatest public good.

Of interest is Skorinov's classification of law. As already mentioned, he distinguishes between unwritten and written law. The latter is subdivided into divine, ecclesiastical and zemstvo law. Divine law is set forth in the Bible, ecclesiastical - in the documents of councils, zemstvo, or secular - by the most enlightened people and sovereigns. The idea is also expressed about the great role of the people both in law-making and in public life: “To the right of every assembly of people and every city, if by faith, by the union of kindness and by goodness, the Commonwealth is multiplied by the good.”

F. Skorina presents the following classification of zemstvo law. First, he talks about the "common law", which fixes the general principles of the life of society. Then F. Skaryna follows pagan law, which refers to the rules for conducting hostilities between states. As a man of her time, F. Skorina witnessed numerous wars and believes that they should be conducted in accordance with legal norms - notify the enemy in advance of the start of hostilities, fulfill the conditions of the peace (truce), respect the institution of negotiations, etc. Immediately after pagan law comes knightly or military law. It is a kind of, in modern terms, the charter of the army, since it regulates the combat formation of troops, tactics of conducting combat operations, and behavior on the battlefield. Further, he singles out royal, local, maritime and merchant law.

This classification testifies to F. Skorina's deep understanding of the need for legal regulation of the most important spheres of life and society, which can make it more stable and harmonious.

Although F. Skorina is a representative of his time in his views on society as a whole, some of his ideas are still relevant today. This is especially true of his methodology for creating laws, the need to build relations between the main social groups, classes and estates on the basis of public consent and mutual concessions.

Symon (Semyon, Simeon) Budny (1530-1593). Since Budny entered the history of Russian philosophical thought as one of the most prominent ideologists and figures of the Reformation period. All his work as a theologian and philosopher was condemned by representatives of Protestantism, Orthodoxy, and Catholicism.

Contemporaries-theologians put Simon Budny on a par with such famous figures of the Reformation as Jan Hus and Miguel Servet. His works were known not only in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Poland, but also in the Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, England, and Russia.

The ontology of Semyon Budny stems from his antitrinitarianism. Having rejected the Trinity, S. Budny develops the doctrine of God as the Absolute. Simeon Budny does not deny the divinity of Christ and the Holy Spirit, however, in his opinion, they are not consubstantial with God the Father. In his "Symbol of Faith" the author proves that God has eternity, omnipotence, immutability, inseparability, infinity, creation. With his infinite power, he created from nothing the heavens, and the earth, and the seas, and angels, and people, and animals. God created the whole world without the help of the Son, who was born from a woman who belonged to the human race.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity proceeds from a single divine essence, which acts as an intrapersonal relationship of three interrelated substances-hypostases - God the Father (beginningless beginning). God the Son (Logos or Absolute meaning) and God the Holy Spirit (life-giving principle). These three substances (hypostases) have equal size and inseparability, although, apparently, they are consubstantial. Despite its consubstantiality, each element of the Trinity has its own ontological meaning: God the Father is the pre-foundation of pure being, God the Son (Christ) is the Logos-Word-Law (the conceptual design of being), God the Holy Spirit is the creative principle based on synthesis pure being and the Logos-Word-Law.

In the creation of the world, according to Christian philosophy, three equivalent substantive principles participate at the same time, which perform their own special functions: the Being of God the Father acquires meaning thanks to God the Son (Logos-Word-Law), while the creation of the world occurs with the help of God the Holy Spirit.

S. Budny expresses the idea that the doctrine of the Trinity could arise only as a result of the combination of philosophy and theology. The first Christian philosopher-apologists Justin, Aristides. Tertullian, and then Augustine "Blessed" simply invented these three hypostases of God. Criticizing the proponents of the doctrine of the Trinity and their modern defenders. S. Budny notes that in the original text of Holy Scripture there is not a single place where it would be stated that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one God.

In polemics with his opponents (both Catholics and Protestants), he finds an ally in Orthodoxy, which, unlike Catholicism and Protestantism, believed that the Holy Spirit comes only from God the Father, and not from God the Son. However, the main argument in the discussion for S. Budny is the logic of reason. In a letter to the well-known Protestant theologian from Switzerland, G. Bullinger, in 1563, he shows that it follows from the Catholic and Protestant doctrine of the Trinity that the Holy Spirit is the common offspring of God the Father and God the Son. But God the Son was born not only from God the Father, but also from God the Holy Spirit by virtue of their consubstantiality. Therefore, the doctrine of the Trinity is logically untenable.

S. Budny criticizes those places in the Bible that speak of the birth of Christ. He rejects, first of all, the divine origin of Christ, considering him only a great preacher-prophet and a highly moral person. S. Budny thus excludes Christ from the transcendental principle, rejects him as a whole. Therefore, the concept of God is inapplicable to him.

Does not have an independent essence and the third hypostasis - God the Holy Spirit. It is an attribute of God, his creative power. A part of a whole cannot act as a whole. S. Budny draws an analogy between the Holy Spirit and the human spirit, which depends on the body. The spirit of man cannot replace the man himself. If this is allowed, then the human spirit ceases to be it. So is the Holy Spirit. He cannot be both God and Spirit at the same time.

Consistently destroying the entire system of evidence of the supporters of the Trinity, S. Budny presented God as an impersonal principle. God is the pre-foundation of being, the spirit is its attribute, its creative force. Supporters of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity put forward 10 evidence confirming the existence of the Trinity. Refuting this evidence, S. Budny cites 18 episodes from the Bible, confirming, in his opinion, that God in the Bible is God the Father, and not the Trinity. However, S. Budny does not agree with the evolutionists, who, based on the understanding of God as an impersonal principle, made a conclusion about the emergence of the world without divine participation.

In general, starting from the fundamental ideas of providentialism and creationism in medieval thinking, S. Budny believes that God not only created the world, but also controls it.

On the whole, the doctrine of the Absolute undermined from within both providentialism and creationism. Having subjected the dogma of the Trinity to philosophical and theological criticism, substantiating the earthly origin of Christ, S. Budny laid the foundation for the most daring philosophical conclusions.

Epistemology. Faith and reason. Dialectics. The rationalistic analysis of the Bible undertaken by S. Budny inevitably led him to solve the problem of the relationship between faith and reason. Having rationalized and naturalized the Bible, the philosopher resolutely gives preference to reason (in the connection faith - reason). Only with the help of the mind can one know religious and worldly secrets. In this, the views of S. Budny continue the traditions of K. Smolyatich and K. Turovsky on a non-literal reading of biblical texts. The essential difference is the pronounced rationalism of S. Budny. If K. Smolyatich and K. Turovsky declared their right to a thorough understanding of the Holy Scriptures, then S. Budny is already embarking on his systematic rationalistic criticism, the purpose of which is to establish the truth. An important component of the rationalistic method of S. Budny is the requirement of textual comprehension of the Bible. Not conjectures-allegories, he declares, but a strict analysis of the text will allow one to know the truth. This requires an unambiguous understanding of the words of the text, assigning to it a meaning that is adequate to the objects themselves. It is necessary to judge objects not by their names, but to deduce names from their essence.

He understands truth itself as the adequacy of human reason and experience. Therefore, the truth is achieved on the basis of a large factual and historical material, which allows a person to comprehend a comprehensive picture of being. This is the first feature of S. Budny's epistemology.

Since the truth of Holy Scripture is presented in a folded form, it can be revealed only with the help of dialectical reason. In support of his thought, S. Budny cites the example of Christ and the apostles, who perfectly mastered the dialectic of cognition of the world.

From this follows the second feature of the epistemology of S. Budny, which lies in its dialectic. He presents dialectics itself not as an invention of the ancient Greeks, but as a natural gift. Dialectics is not sophistry, which often leads a person to epistemological dead ends. Dialectics is also not scholastic logic, which oversimplifies the world and knowledge about it. People should beware of such an understanding of dialectics, so as not to be deceived and not to deceive others. Only with the correct use of dialectics does it have a genuine character and help in comprehending the truth.

The third feature of the epistemology of S. Budny is its naturalism, which follows from Christology, in which the human nature of Christ is substantiated. S. Budny naturalizes such a concept as the afterlife, biblical miracles, etc. Rejecting the supernatural situations described in the Bible, he not only calls for help ordinary common sense and facts, but also refers to the data of science of that time, seeks to explain them as natural - natural phenomena.

For the epistemology of S. Budny, along with rationalism, naturalism and dialectics, is also characteristic. such an (originally philosophical) method of cognition as the principle of doubt. This is the fourth feature of his epistemology. Nothing, including the Holy Scriptures, a person should take on faith. It emphasizes the need to test everything with which a person deals, otherwise delusions are inevitable. Man is free to err and err. However, this is not a deliberate distortion of the truth, not an evil force, but a manifestation of intellectual freedom, without which the process of finding the truth is basically impossible. Only a thorough test of faith by reason and experience data is a condition for determining the truth or falsity of philosophical and theological problems.

Such a rationalistic position of S. Budny undermined the dogmatic method of philosophical thinking that prevailed in the middle of the century. It is noteworthy that the principle of doubt S. Budny not only extends to theological issues, but also considers it useful for natural science research, knowledge of the surrounding world as a whole.

S. Budny, in this regard, strongly prefers individual reason, self-knowledge of a person. He himself does not claim to be absolute truth, but others, in his opinion, should not have such a right. Man, the thinker asserts, must be freed from the power of scholastic authorities. He has the right to freely express his views, and in discussions he must observe tolerance towards his opponents (tolerance for other people's opinions and beliefs).

In discussions, passions must be avoided, as they drown out the truth. S. Budny believes that all interested scientists and non-scientists, teachers and students, rich and poor, can participate in discussions. He noted: where there is no freedom of discussion, there is no freedom at all. The views of S. Budny on the role of individual reason, protection of the human right to intellectual freedom were not only an integral part of the European philosophies of the Renaissance, but, ahead of time, prepared the rationalism of the New Age.

The doctrine of man and society. The views of S. Budny on a person and society correlate (correlate) with the main directions of the Renaissance-Reformation anthropocentrism, where a person is not just an object of philosophizing, but also turns out to be the central link of universal existence.

Man, according to S. Budny, is reasonable, holy, righteous and autocratic. Living and inanimate nature obeys him as the main value on earth. However, being autocratic by nature, man falls into sin. S. Budny develops a whole doctrine of ways to get rid of sin. He proceeds from the dualistic (material and spiritual at the same time), in his opinion, human nature. A person consists of two parts - a body that has fallen into sin, and a soul. If the body dies, the soul loses its individual-personal content. Having realized itself in a particular person during life, it forever ceases to be his soul after death. S. Budny does not say that the soul dies with the body. She deindividualizes and no longer knows anything about herself or the world around her, no longer interferes in earthly affairs, cannot move to another body. Therefore, a person can overcome sin only by a righteous life, good deeds, and the fulfillment of Christian moral commandments. Despite his original sin, he must not lose faith in salvation. The doctrine of the soul and body, which denied the immortality of the individual soul, was a serious philosophical achievement of the thinker. From the unity of the soul and the body, in which it (the soul) depends on the body, is its attribute, and not an independent substance, European materialism later followed. .

Justifying the existing forms of feudal dependence, S. Budny demanded a humane attitude of the owners towards the peasants. He believed that hardworking and obedient peasants should be encouraged with freedom. These views were not shared by such well-known anti-trinitarians in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as Martin Chekhovits (1523-1613) and Yakub from Kalinovka (1523-1613), a disciple of Peter from Goniendz, who preached social equality, community of property, and the abolition of serfdom. This found support among the peasants and artisans. At the Protestant Synod of 1568, the gentry were told: “You have no right to eat bread that your subjects then get, but you yourself must work. Nor should you live on estates granted to your ancestors for the shedding of blood. Sell ​​your estates and property and distribute the proceeds to the poor.

S. Budny, in his views on society, proceeds from the well-known social teaching of Plato, according to which each estate should do its own thing. Relations between estates, according to S. Budny, are regulated by law. He sharply opposes lynching, personal revenge, which he considers the greatest sin. The punishment of criminals is the prerogative (right) of the courts, the government and the state.

A person also has the right to self-defence. If at the same time he kills the criminal, then such an action is not punished.

S. Budny is generally against violence in resolving interstate issues. At the same time, he believes that wars in which the homeland is defended are just. Unjust are those in which the war is waged for foreign lands, in order to satisfy the claims of the rulers. He stands for peace between peoples and social class harmony in the state. Ideas that destroy society must be regarded as ungodly.

His views on world history deserve attention. S. Budny gives a higher assessment of the culture of the Eastern Roman Empire than that of the Western Roman Empire. The first developed in the bosom of ancient Greek civilization, and the second - in Latin, which is lower than Greek. .

Simeon of Polotsk (1629-1680). On the place of philosophy in the life of man and the state. S. Polotsky divides philosophy into “reasonable” (logic), “natural” (physics) and “moral” (ethics). Like the ancient Greeks, he understands philosophy as wisdom, and the philosopher as a sage who knows and knows how to live in the world. As a bee collects honey from flowers, not paying attention to their beauty, so the philosopher (sage) extracts the truth in order to carry it for the benefit of all people, the scientist emphasizes.

Philosophy is of great importance in the life of every person, especially in his moral development.

If people lived according to Christian moral precepts (that is, wisely and fairly), then philosophy, according to S. Polotsky, they would not need. However, the world and man are imperfect, the essence of things is not on the surface. Philosophy can and should move a person to perfection and knowledge, therefore it is simply internally necessary for him. Philosophy teaches us to focus on the main thing and be distracted from the vain, not to be afraid of the strong, to humbly endure adversity, to live in peace with people, and makes it possible to foresee the course of events. It also helps a person to determine the meaning of life, which, as many people think, is not in wealth, but in wisdom, Polotsky believes.

Surprisingly, being a deeply religious person, he puts philosophy above religion. Especially when it comes to the formation of a person. Nature gives us life. But it also gives life to animals, he writes. If it were not for philosophy, man would be like an animal. With the help of philosophy, he is likened to an angel. Philosophy is useful not only for the individual, but also for the state. Like Plato, he believes that only on a philosophical (wise) basis can a state be built. It, like no other science, helps to "arrange" a strong statehood.

The doctrine of being and cognition. According to the philosophical tradition, Simeon of Polotsk believed that the world consists of three parts: the primitive world (God), the macrocosm (nature) and the microcosm (man). God is an active and creative spiritual principle, which creates everything “out of nothing”. As a result of creation, two parts of the world arise: the material, he also calls it the elements (earth, water, air, fire) and the spiritual. The world of separate things and bodies is formed from the elements (macrocosmos - nature), and on the basis of the spiritual part - angels (incorporeal beings) and the human soul. The combination of material and spiritual parts form a person (microcosm). Solving the problem of the relationship between soul and body, the philosopher gives preference to the soul, since the body is mortal, and the soul is immortal.

As for the cognizability of the world, the primitive (God) is unknowable. You just need to believe in him. The other two parts, nature and man, are knowable. He compares nature with a book that is available to read and study for every person. In cognition, both the senses and the mind play a huge role. Sensory knowledge is the first and necessary step in the comprehension of nature and man. A person is, according to the scientist, a city with five entrance gates (sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste), through which he acquires primary knowledge.

However, animals also have feelings. A person surpasses them with his mind, which S. Polotsky, as a rule, associates not with the ability for abstract conceptual and logical thinking, but with the condition-possibility to act morally. Therefore, the center of the mind is in the human heart. His task is to keep good thoughts, since "from good thoughts, there are good derivatives of good deles, from evil packs evil."

S. Polotsky argues that rational knowledge is not infallible. In accordance with the consideration of the mind in conjunction with morality, he calls the errors of the mind sins.

The first sin of the human mind is ignorance. Its reasons lie in the unwillingness to learn, in the absence of conditions for learning and perseverance in overcoming its difficulties. The second is in thoughtlessness (in thoughtlessness, in uncritical borrowing of knowledge). The third is in speed of judgment (in hasty conclusions). Fourth - in the impermanence of the mind. Fifth - in stubbornness (in unwillingness to admit one's views are erroneous) Sixth - in the sophistication of the flesh (in the direction of the mind to satisfy bodily pleasures. When a person lives not with the mind-heart, but with the body) Seventh - in the desire to know what benefits a person least of all .

S. Polotsky notes that intellectual abilities are improved in the process of useful practical activity and study. Therefore, both good deeds and a bookish word are of great importance for knowledge. Like for any scientist, the goal of knowledge is the truth. He considers the truth itself from the epistemological, semantic and moral-praxeological (practical) side. From the epistemological - the truth is understood as a mental reflection. adequate to reflect. With semantic - when the meaning of the word most accurately reproduces the object or phenomenon itself. And with moral and praxeological - if human deeds coincide with moral laws.

The thinker is a supporter of the doctrine of dual truth. Religious truth is the subject of faith, philosophical truth is achieved with the help of reason.

Teaching about man. A philosopher from a Christian-humanistic and educational position seeks to solve the problem of a person, whom he defines as a “friendly” (social and active) being. He advocates an active, socially useful lifestyle. Severe asceticism is alien to him (especially he opposes fasting that exhausts the human mind). , destroy strength, give birth to the spirit of despondency and sadness) and inactive pastime, for human inactivity destroys time. A person must leave behind good deeds, boldly intervene in the course of events, try to change them.

Like other representatives of Russian humanistic and educational thought, S. Polotsky considers a person in relationship with a social community (family, community, state), outside of which his formation as a person cannot take place.

S. Polotsky repeatedly emphasizes the role of self-education in the formation of a citizen. Parental virtues are not inherited. What he will become in the future depends on the person himself, on his good deeds.

Intellectual abilities are not inherited either. Through zeal, constant reading, the human mind becomes sharp, although at birth it was not like that, the scientist says. At the same time, the role of the family and parents in the moral formation of a person is great. The father has a direct responsibility to raise the child to be virtuous, primarily by the strength of his moral example.

The thinker is saddened by the fact that man sometimes behaves worse than the beast. Even animals help out their relatives in trouble, which is not always observed in relations between people who “dig a hole for each other, and try not to help out the one who has fallen into it, but to fall asleep faster.” Therefore, it is good in a family if a person has a friend, the scientist claims. Not everyone can be a friend, but only the one who boldly condemns your shortcomings in the eyes, helps in need and good deeds, and does not leave sadness in the days. And, on the contrary, you need to avoid people who are with you in fun, but leave you in difficult times.

One of the main virtues of S. Polotsky is wisdom and education. But it turns into its opposite, into immorality, if a person is wise and enlightened, and "the one who does good is still deprived." Wisdom, enlightenment and education must be realized in deeds - such is the requirement of the philosopher. Inaction is not only immoral, but also criminal, he believes.

Man has a freedom that does not depend on either fate or the stars. He is free to act morally and immorally. If he does evil, it does not depend on fate or the position of the stars in the sky, but on himself. Therefore, a person is responsible for his actions. To prevent evil from childhood, it is necessary to educate virtues in him.

Enlightenment and virtue, diligence in work (both intellectual and physical) for the benefit of people and the homeland forms a person's personal dignity, S. Polotsky believes.

The political ideal of Simeon of Polotsk is a strong and enlightened monarchy, where "the law is respected." The idea of ​​the need to limit royal power by law, its functioning on the basis of law, as you can see, is characteristic of domestic socio-political thought. The monarch must be a sage, but this is clearly not enough for state and civil well-being, good, fair laws are also required. In the system of legal support of peaceful state life, the thinker occupies a prominent place in legal proceedings. The scientist critically assesses the contemporary judicial practice corroded by gratuitousness (bribery), lies, fear of condemning the strong and rich, injustice. The court, in his opinion, should be decided on the basis of Christian morality and classical legal norms, regardless of the property and social status of the defendants.

Being one of the close tsarist advisers, S. Polotsky set as the main foreign policy task "the radiation of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia", substantiated the need for Russia to go to the Baltic and Black Seas.

As a humanist, S. Polotsky honors a person not for his wealth, but for moral virtues, wisdom and enlightenment. In the spirit of early Christian morality, he condemns wealth, sees in it the source of sin; so the son, in anticipation of the possession of the inheritance, wishes his father a speedy death; the rich do not share brotherly with the poor and beggars, but exhaust their treasures in drunkenness and fornication.

K. Narbut (1738-1807). Among the representatives of the early Enlightenment, Kazimir Narbut should be noted. Several handwritten notes of his lectures, "Logic" (which played the role of a textbook in the last third of the 18th century), "Selected Philosophical Judgments ...", written in collaboration with textbooks, have come down to us.

Philosophical views. The essence of scholasticism is the subordination of all effective rational knowledge and science to the truths of revelation and faith. accepted a priori as the highest criterion of truth. K. Narbut was one of the first to argue against scholasticism. He emphasized the need to distinguish between philosophy and theology, since the former must be free in the search for truth. The task of philosophy is to find the causes of things. It is the science of all things and phenomena of the world.

The philosophical ideas of Descartes are closest in spirit to K. Narbut.

Philosophy acquired freedom starting with Descartes, emphasizes K. Narbut. He understands philosophy itself as the science of God and all natural things. It consists of six parts: natural theology (the science of God), ontology (the science of the properties inherent in all things), psychology (the science of the human soul), logic (the science of achieving truth), physics (the science of natural bodies), moral philosophy (the science of good and evil). He proves that philosophy is connected with all other special sciences and they simply need it. Medicine and rhetoric are especially in need of philosophy.

Like most thinkers of this era, in philosophy K. Narbut is a deist and a dualist. The world was created by God, but then he does not interfere either in nature or in human affairs. Nature develops according to its own laws. The philosopher, he argues, needs to follow reason, not big names. This is the philosophy of freedom. It is justified by the need for constant verification of the methods by which a person proves both the truth and falsity of judgments. Truth is the result of human knowledge. It is achieved in four ways: by internal spiritual consciousness, inferences, internal and external experience (internal experience is a person’s ability to think rationally; external experience is a sensual stage of knowledge) and on the basis of the experience of other scientists.

True knowledge is knowledge that is consistent with objects and phenomena. The criterion of truth is in the reliability and clarity of ideas.

Socio-political views. In the doctrine of society, K. Narbut proceeds from the theory of natural law. He assigns the main role in the socio-political structure to the state. People originally lived in a state of natural law, then it is replaced by civil law. Only in the state can the idea of ​​the common good be realized. The state is its guarantor. The state itself arises from the need to protect public order, it is a product of the general will and consent. There can be no person outside of society. People live happily in a society where everything is based on the observance of laws and respect for authority.

Man must constantly strive for happiness. Such aspirations turn into a desire for universal happiness. If the task of legislation is to consolidate the natural rights of citizens, then the authorities must ensure their implementation. Private property is a sacred human right.

Introduction

Rancisk Skaryna belongs to the glorious cohort of outstanding people, through whose efforts the national spiritual culture was created.

The study of cultural and educational activities and the creative heritage of the thinker has been going on for two centuries now. There is an extensive literature about Skaryna, created by several generations of domestic and foreign scientists. Soviet researchers made a particularly large contribution to scoriniana.

Trying to evaluate his activities, Skaryna characterized it as a service to "people of the Commonwealth of the Russian language." In his time, this concept included three fraternal peoples - Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. The role of Skaryna in the history of the spiritual culture of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus cannot be overestimated. Skaryna is the founder of East Slavic book printing and printing business in Lithuania. The successors and continuers of his publishing tradition in Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian lands were Ivan Fedorov, Petr Timofeevich Mstislavets, Simon Budny, Vasily Tyapinsky, Kozma and Luka Mamonichi and many others.

Skaryna is the first East Slavic translator of the Bible into a language close to the vernacular, its commentator and publisher. It should be considered as a forerunner of the reform movement in the Western Russian (i.e., Belarusian and Ukrainian) and Lithuanian lands. Long before the beginning of the reformation and humanist movement in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (which at that time included Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania), in his prefaces to the Bible, Skaryna tried to justify the need to update the dominant religion, morality, some public institutions, in particular law and legal proceedings. Coming up with the idea of ​​the Reformation, Skaryna did not receive wide support in his homeland. Skaryna's influence on the process of reformation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which began in the second half of the 16th century, was only indirect. It manifested itself mainly thanks to the Skorina Bible, which became widespread and popular on the territory of Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania and Russia in the 16th-17th centuries (see 9, 122-144, 12, 263-276), in the reformation-renovation, cultural - educational and socio-political movement. To Skaryna, to some extent, the judgment regarding Erasmus of Rotterdam is applicable: he laid "eggs", which were then "hatched" by the reformers (see 106. 39). This is how, for example, the subsequent conservative-Orthodox, Uniate and counter-Reformation tradition looked at Skaryna, calling him a “Hussite heretic” and not without reason believing that Skorina’s Bible is the source of many heresies that arose in Western Orthodoxy (see 16, 717). The related nature of the activities of Skaryna and Luther was noted, in particular, by Andrey Kurbsky.

Skaryna is an outstanding East Slavic humanist thinker of the Renaissance. He mastered the ancient Russian philosophical and ethical tradition, which is characterized by a view of nature and society through the ideal of moral beauty (see 52, 15-21), and attempted to synthesize this tradition with Western European philosophical culture and social thought. He was the founder of the Renaissance-humanistic direction in the domestic philosophical and socio-political thought, the national tradition in the history of Belarusian culture.

Skaryna, as a humanist thinker of the Renaissance, addresses the problems of man and society and tries to give them a solution that differs from the traditional Christian one. The ethical moment dominates in the worldview of the Belarusian humanist. The main question for Francis Skaryna, as well as almost four centuries later for the great Russian writer and philosopher Leo Tolstoy, is the question of how a person should live, what moral and ethical values ​​and ideals he should profess so that his private and public life does not conflict with his conscience? With his work, Skorina reflected a rather mature level of development of national culture at the beginning of the 16th century.

As you know, a very common way of philosophizing in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was commenting on the Bible. Skaryna, as a thinker, is characterized by an attempt at a humanistic interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. In his prefaces, he sought, with the help of biblical texts, to justify and substantiate the humanistic ideas of the Renaissance about the religious and moral autonomy of a person, his dignity, which is determined not so much by origin or social status, but by intellectual and moral virtues, personal merits; the advantage of an active-practical life compared to a contemplative one; about citizenship and patriotism as the most important social characteristics of a person, etc. In general, Skaryna's worldview is an attempt to revise the official Christian teaching, and above all ethics, bourgeois in its tendency.

The Skorinin Bible played a huge role in the formation and development of social consciousness and self-awareness of the East Slavic peoples. The translation of the Bible into a language close to the vernacular (Belarusian) made it accessible to a wider circle of readers, in fact meant a call for its study and, to some extent, for free research. Thus, voluntarily or involuntarily, the mediation of the official church and theology in relation to man to "divine revelation" was eliminated, faith became the prerogative of individual consciousness. The study of the Bible has tended to lead one to doubt its "divine inspiration" and ultimately to unbelief. By democratizing the Holy Scripture, i.e. making it the subject of study of the “people of the Commonwealth” (this was categorically forbidden by the ruling church), Skaryna affirmed the principle of a person’s personal relationship to faith, prepared a turning point in the consciousness and nature of thinking of his compatriots, opened up the possibility for individual religious philosophizing, free from official ecclesiastical theological authorities. Skaryna himself demonstrated this in his numerous commentaries on biblical books. Thus, he introduced into East Slavic social thought one of the characteristic philosophical and humanistic methods of interpreting Holy Scripture, developed by the humanists of the Renaissance. After Skaryna, attempts at independent interpretation of the Bible, its individual reading and philosophical and humanistic comprehension were repeatedly made in the history of East Slavic culture from Simon Budny to Grigory Skovoroda.

Skaryna is an educator of the Renaissance. He considered one of the main tasks of his ascetic activity to introduce, through the Bible, a “simple and common man” to education, knowledge, to the seven “free sciences” - grammar, logic, rhetoric, music, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy. Skorina attached no less importance to educating a person through “good-natured philosophy”, and in this matter, in his opinion, the Bible in the native language should have played a very significant role. In the view of Skaryna, the Bible was also an effective means of aesthetic education of a person.

Of course, as a son of his era, Skaryna was a religious person. Without faith, he could not imagine an intellectually and morally perfect person. However, the nature of his faith is far from orthodox. His faith is personal, it is driven by an individual moral duty, it does not need external incentive sources, and in particular the mediation of the church. A person independently, Skorina believed, without church consecration, is able to comprehend the religious and moral essence of "divine revelation" as a result of direct intimate personal contact with the Holy Scriptures. The writings of the fathers and teachers of the church, the resolutions of church councils and theological works of church hierarchs, that is, everything that belongs to the field of church tradition, in Skaryna's view, does not have the authority that official - both Catholic and Orthodox - tradition gives it. Although Skaryna has a certain reverence towards the Bible, it is a special kind of reverence. The Bible for Skaryna is not so much a religious work as an intellectually motivating, morally edifying and civic educational work. Proceeding from such an attitude to the Holy Scriptures, Skaryna, through comments, sought to place appropriate accents in it, to introduce a new meaning into biblical narratives, parables, allegories, to focus on those social and moral and philosophical problems that were ignored or remained in the shadows of orthodox Christian philosophers. and climbed onto the shield by humanist thinkers of the Renaissance.

When reading Skaryna, one must remember the advice that F. Engels gave to K. Schmidt regarding the study of Hegel, namely: not to strive to concentrate attention in the thinker’s works on what served him as “leverage for constructions”, but “to find under an irregular form and in artificial connection "historically true and progressive (1, 38, 177). At the same time, it should be noted that although the desire to make the Bible an authoritative source of education and upbringing of a person has a historical justification, it also testifies to the historical limitations of Skaryna as a thinker.

Skaryna is a great patriot, a faithful and devoted son of his people. Despite the fact that, as a personality, Skorin developed mainly in the atmosphere of Western European culture, he did not “Latinize”, as often happened with his compatriots, did not break ties with his homeland, did not lose his national identity, but gave all his strength and knowledge, all his energy to serving "People of the Commonwealth of the Russian language", drew for the benefit of his people. It is not surprising, therefore, that he elevated patriotism to the level of the highest civic-ethical virtues.

K. Marx considered activities similar to Skorinin’s as evidence of the “awakening of nationalities” in the Renaissance and Reformation eras (see ibid., 29, eighteen). Indeed, Skaryna's Bible played a significant role in the development of the Belarusian literary language and the Belarusian national culture in general. In language, Hegel noted, the creative nature of man is manifested, everything that he represents is presented to them as a spoken word. Outside the native language, a person's thoughts are alien, not integral, and therefore the subjective freedom of a person cannot be fully realized (see 38, 198-199). It is characteristic that the same idea was expressed at the end of the 16th century. one of the founders of the East Slavic philological science - Lavrenty Zizaniy, who believed that the native language is the key, "opening the mind to knowledge for everyone" (49, 2). Skaryna’s appeal to her native language in the process of translating the Bible contributed to the spiritual emancipation of the people, acted as an essential element in the formation of national identity, the democratization of culture, the transformation of the latter from the privilege of the ruling class of feudal lords into the property of broader social strata of society.

In the context of the most severe feudal Catholic reaction and counter-reformation, Skaryna's ideas had a fruitful influence on the national liberation movement of the Belarusian and Ukrainian peoples of the second half of the 16th-17th centuries, on the struggle of public figures and thinkers for the preservation of the national national culture and native language. At the same time, the ideological heritage of Skaryna served as one of the theoretical sources of the concept of convergence of East Slavic culture with the secular culture of the West.

The problem of Skaryna's worldview and the direction of his activity is, in fact, part of the global problem of the formation and development of the Belarusian people as a conscious subject of history, the formation of their culture, class and national identity; this is the problem of the centuries-old struggle of the Belarusian people for their social liberation, national existence and state independence.

From the book Hackers by Markoff John

INTRODUCTION This book attempts to trace the paths of the computer underground and recreate, based on real facts, a picture of cyberpunk culture. It's a bizarre mix of cutting-edge technical knowledge with outcast morality. Typically in books

From the book Do not fall behind the finish line author Byshovets Anatoly Fedorovich

From the book of Dante. His life and literary activity author Watson Maria Valentinovna

Introduction Biographical information about Dante is very, very scarce. The main source and manual for the biographer of the brilliant creator of the Divine Comedy are, first of all, his own works: the collection Vita Nuova (New Life) and his great poem. Here you can

From the book by Jonathan Swift. His life and literary activity author Yakovenko Valentin

Introduction Usual judgments about Swift. - Portrait of Swift. - Arrogance and prudence. - Headstone inscription on his grave. - Saeva indignatio and virilis libertas as the main features of his character, activities, works. Whoever did not read, at least in the days of childhood and youth,

From Francis Bacon. His life, scientific works and social activities author Litvinova Elizaveta Fedorovna

Introduction Bacon's biography does not evoke any lofty feelings in our souls, it does not evoke either tenderness or reverence. We are imbued only with cold reverence for his mental powers and try to do him justice for the services rendered to mankind. These services

From the book of Charles-Louis Montesquieu. His life, scientific and literary activity author Nikonov A A

Introduction There are few writers who have had such a profound and fruitful influence on their contemporaries, on monarchs and statesmen, on subsequent generations, and even on the positive legislation of almost all the countries of Europe, which, undoubtedly,

From the book Rereading the Master. Linguist notes on mac author Barr Maria

Introduction The first words are words of gratitude to those people who helped me in the work on this book and inspired me to work. These are, first of all, my teachers, and, first of all, I. F. Belza, a brilliant researcher of M. A. Bulgakov’s work, an outstanding researcher

From the book Tragedy of the Cossacks. War and fate-3 author Timofeev Nikolai Semyonovich

INTRODUCTION I wrote this book. Why? There is no simple answer to this simple question. Many will think: who can be interested in events, even not quite banal, the life of one person during the bloodiest war in the history of mankind, in which 50 million were killed

From the book 100 Docking Stories [Part 2] author Syromyatnikov Vladimir Sergeevich

4.1 INTRODUCTION One step forward, two steps back and new thinking We cannot get rid of the past, our history. These are our human bonds. All our lives, we, Soviet people, studied the chapters of the communist bible, the old and new testaments, the fundamental works of Vladimir Lenin,

From the book Garshin author Belyaev Naum Zinovievich

Introduction Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin, the favorite writer of the Russian intelligentsia of the eighties, is one of the most tragic figures of the era of timelessness, the black era of the almighty hypocrite and obscurantist Pobedonostsev and his crowned patron, the stupid gendarme Alexander

From the book Exploration of Siberia in the 17th century author Nikitin Nikolay Ivanovich

INTRODUCTION History assigned the role of a pioneer to the Russian people. For many hundreds of years, the Russians discovered new lands, settled them and transformed them with their labor, defended with weapons in their hands in the fight against numerous enemies. As a result, Russian people were settled and

From the book Bestuzhev-Ryumin author Grigoriev Boris Nikolaevich

INTRODUCTION No one is surprised by family dynasties in tsarist diplomacy - especially many of them appeared in the 19th century, and we meet them especially often among the Baltic Germans. But what a whole family of diplomats - and what! - appeared already during the time and during the life of Peter I, and even

From the book A Star Called Stieg Larsson by Forshaw Barry

Introduction The posthumous success of Stieg Larsson and his Millennium series has reached an unprecedented level, with worldwide circulation of his books numbering in the millions. It's time to pay tribute to the life and work of this interesting, courageous, but self-destructive man.

From the book by Rubens the author Avermat Roger

INTRODUCTION Art is that mighty force that at all times unites peoples in their common striving for beauty. Sometimes art is embodied in monumental creations, usually unnamed, sometimes in works created by one creator, such as Rubens,

From the book of Lidia Ruslanova. soul singer author Mikheenkov Sergey Egorovich

INTRODUCTION I was once told that the former tank guard Ivan Averyanovich Starostin, to whom I went to write down front-line stories, met with Lidia Andreevna Ruslanova, that he listened to her concert in 1943 or 1944. Ivan Averyanovich went through the entire war from Rzhev to

From Derrida's book author Strathern Paul

Introduction “I love nothing more than the process of remembering and the memories themselves,” wrote Jacques Derrida in 1984, speaking of his close friend, the philosopher Paul de Man, who had died shortly before. At the same time, Derrida confessed, "I've never been good at telling stories." These

before 1490 - c. 1541) - Belarusian, educator, whose name is associated with the beginning of book printing in Belarus and Lithuania, the formation of Belarusian, lit. language and writing. Socio-political. and philosophy. S.'s views were humanistic. orientation. He was a supporter of broad education of the people, social. equality, religious tolerance.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

SKORINA Francis (Frantishak)

Belarusian first printer, thinker-humanist of the Renaissance. Born in Polotsk, studied here, then in Krakow and Padua high fur boots. Bachelor of Philosophy, Doctor of Medicine, also had a Doctor of Science degree. In Prague, he created the first Belarusian printing house. He translated, commented on, and in 1517-1519 published 23 books of the Bible. Around 1521 he created a new printing house in Vilna, where he published the Little Travel Book (c. 1522), and in 1525 he published The Apostle. Around 1535 he left for Prague. He considered the Bible as the result of the centuries-old experience of mankind and a means of familiarizing people with knowledge. An analysis of S.'s views suggests that he proceeded from the possibility of a direct and intimate dialogue between man and God through the Bible. S.'s worldview is a synthesis of Christian, ancient and humanistic ideas of the Renaissance, and is distinguished by religious tolerance. In the center of his attention are human problems (the meaning of life, spirituality, goodness, etc.). S.'s ethics focuses on socially significant earthly life, moral and intellectual improvement, and service to the good. Service to God is manifested through service to people. One of the main human virtues was the desire for intellectual and creative self-identification, which is possible with the synthesis of biblical and philosophical wisdom. Humanistically rethought the gospel concept of "love of neighbor." He understood love as a principle of relationships between people, a universal law of private and public life. Love, according to C, is justified by faith. S. sought to find a universal (independent of confessional and social affiliation) rational moral principle that allows you to regulate public life. One of his leitmotifs - the ratio of individual and common good ("common good"), gave priority to the latter, since a person is required to learn to "live together" and disinterestedly serve "the commonwealth's belongings." In the same vein, he considered his own activities. The second leitmotif is patriotism. S. is the founder of the national-patriotic tradition in the history of Belarusian culture and socio-philosophical thought. S.'s political ideal is secular, humane, and powerful monarchical power. In his opinion, the ruler must be pious, wise, educated, virtuous, attentive and fair in relation to his subjects. The principle of his government is following the laws. Society is based on the peace and agreement of people, which implies following the principles of justice. The latter is achieved when people follow the categorical imperative given by God: "do to others everything that you yourself like to eat from others, and do not repair to others what you yourself do not want to have from others."