Philosophical conceptual apparatus formation in ukrainian literary works of the 17th century: ‘dobro’ and ‘blaho’

Abstract

The history of the formation of theological and philosophical apparatus in the Ukrainian literary works in early modern era period remains today almost untouched field of humanitarian studies. Meanwhile the ratio to the text and to the word, understanding its (word) significance, search of the semantic relations between different words/concepts/terms as well as the establishing semantic fields of individual lexemes are the signs that signal about the type of cultural area, thinking practices that prevalent in it, finally, about the formation of their own philosophical discourse within the particular culture. The article defines the semantic fields and the principles of use of lexemes “dobro” and “blaho” in the Ukrainian publications of the first quarter of the 17th century, in particular in the book “Likarstvo na ospalyi umysl cholovichyi” (Ostrog, 1607). On the basis of the conducted analysis the following conclusions are offered: 1) in texts written in Church Slavonic there is a trend towards diluting the semantic field of lexemes “blaho” and “dobro”, where the first is reserved for the defining of the area of the sacred, and the second describes all the positive things that occurs in life on earth; 2) the texts written in old Ukrainian language, completely missing the lexeme “blaho”, in return “dobro” applies to the sacred, and morally advanced plots in the profane world; at the level of everyday usage this lexeme is usually replaced by the synonyms of the other, not symbolic order; 3) the difference between the discourse that operates with the concepts and everyday language is less fixed on the choice of language (sacral, Church Slavonic or just “simple” old Ukrainian), but on the level at verbalized intellectual activity, fixed in the specific variations of word usage within every linguistic usage. Refs 20.