Moral renovation of a human being in the social utopia by lazar baranonych: a retrospective view

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the research of the problem of moral renovation of human beings outlined in the social utopia by Lazar Baranonych in the context of modern efforts to bring the much needed order to the social life in Ukraine. With this in mind, we tried to draw attention to those optimistic hopes of the thinker which gave him a belief in the reorganization of social relations and interaction on humanistic grounds, with this occurring, first and foremost, in Ukraine. Such an approach was, primarily, proposed in the doctrine of happiness that, according to the thinker, could be found on earth, if individuals sought to develop their talents and sophisticate their ways of life, being guided by the lofty ethical principles of the New Adam, or Christ, which is His other name. Believing this, Lazar Baranonych taught that the Old Adam saw the weal in direct usefulness of things that satisfied his necessities, and, thus, always strived to possess them whereby this same eagerness shaped the dominant purpose of his life. Conversely, the New Adam views the nature of the weal as being able to perform acts of kindness rather than to accumulate things, in as much as anything may serve both for good and evil purposes. A new, moraly renovated human being, as an alternative to the old one, therefore, can only come into existence through learning to do good deeds. From this point of view, possessing things appears to be a Philosophy of history №1(3) 2020 69 Sophia Prima secondary goal, since one can accumulate wealth and still remain an evil person. All the while, the thinker stated that happiness of the Old and the New Adam resided in different planes. Whereas the Old Adam was above all eager to possess things, the New Adam utilized things in as much as they contributed to the realization of the phenomenon of existential “affinity". Unrestrained, excessive pursuit of abundance and money gradually devalues human beings as spiritual creatures, since they start to lack such merits as unselfishness, generosity, and mercy because by their nature they are not merely mindless possessors of things that could be measured in grams, liters, dollars, etc