Skovoroda, Hryhorii Savych (1722–94)

Skovoroda was the first truly independent philosopher produced by Ukraine and the last brilliant exponent of its Baroque culture. Departing from the Aristotelian tradition of the Kiev Academy, he constructed an original synthesis of ancient and patristic thought. Because of his classical aloofness from history, the sociopolitical trauma of Ukraine’s absorption by Russia, which he witnessed, is hardly reflected in his writings. His worldview foreshadows the Romantic and religious tendencies in nineteenth-century Ukrainian and Russian thought.