Philosophy in Universities Lives in Various Forms

The Development of Philosophical Education in the Slavic World

In 1576, Prince Konstantin Ostrozhski established an academy (also referred to as a college, gymnasium, or school), which produced future bishops and hetmans. At the heart of this academy were Polish scholars from the University of Kraków, led by Jan Latos, who disagreed with Pope Gregory XIII's calendar reform of 1582. For them, the issue of the calendar was fundamentally tied to the autonomy of Eastern Europe; as the new calendar was not accepted by Protestants, Orthodox Christians feared that adopting the papal calendar would render them indistinguishable from Catholics in confessional disputes. Consequently, it became fashionable at the Ostrozhska Academy to draw from the works of Luther or Calvin to present themselves as original in comparison to mainstream Catholic theology. This was exemplified by the academy's professor, who later became a patriarch, Cyril Lukaris (1572—1638), who leaned toward Calvinism. Another Greek professor at the academy was Nikifor Paraschesis Kantakouzenos (?—1607), a descendant of the Byzantine imperial family, who taught rhetoric while the rector Daniil Smotritskiy taught philosophy. The primary focus of philosophy was to master the contemporary system of concepts in order to produce polemical literature. This three-stage educational scheme—grammar, rhetoric, philosophy—introduced at the academy was subsequently replicated in all educational institutions of the Slavic-Russian world, including the Moscow Slavo-Greek-Latin Academy. All these institutions were envisioned as centers for publishing and even spiritual censorship.

Additionally, there was another institution, which we would now classify as elite, namely the academy in Ostrog, founded in 1595. Its founder, Jan Zamoyski (1542—1605), had previously served as the rector of the University of Padua, as well as secretary to King Stefan Batory, grand crown chancellor, and hetman. The first rector, Shimon Simonovich, was a student of the great Dutch humanist Justus Lipsius and a consultant to Patriarch Meletius Pigas. He notably insisted on preserving the old Julian calendar, thereby demonstrating a direct connection between the Eastern Christian world and ancient Rome. In Ostrog, as well as in Lviv, there was a whole quarter of Greek merchants, making it easy to find instructors in Greek. The academy placed primary emphasis on the ability to improvise, crafting eulogies for saints; the veneration of saints served as protection against accusations of Protestantism, while preaching improvisations in the spirit of John Chrysostom defended against allegations of Catholicism, as the academy engaged with patristics bypassing scholasticism, just as humanists engaged with Plato while circumventing Aristotle.

Following the conclusion of the Brest Union in 1596, which required all clergy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to submit to Rome, Patriarch Meletius Pigas, who was then concerned with Eastern European matters, issued a decree stating that only individuals with higher education could become Orthodox priests. Meletius believed that princes would protect educational institutions in their cities, which were essential for their reputation, influence in Europe, and for consultations, thereby unwittingly defending Orthodoxy, which had transitioned to a semi-legal status. Many local princes in the Commonwealth wished to irritate Catholics to assert their independence from the king or the Sejm, but the question was whether they would become Orthodox rather than Protestant. Furthermore, the requirement for a higher education diploma excluded both adventurers and secret Catholics holding Western degrees from serving at the altar.

As many cities in the Commonwealth followed Magdeburg law, which protected the autonomy of corporations, a new type of corporation was conceived: brotherhoods, which maintained churches and monasteries in proper order according to their statutes and thus had the right to dismiss priests who had betrayed their trust, such as those who sold church property. Given that bishops who had entered into union with Rome could be regarded as embezzlers of church property, brotherhoods gained power over the bishops, and since Protestantism demanded the secularization (confiscation for the state) of monastic property, brotherhoods opposed Protestantism.

The Lviv Brotherhood quickly established its own school, receiving a charter from the patriarch. Brotherhood theology had its distinct features; for instance, it asserted almost the equivalence of Greek and Slavic languages, which emerged as a political application of Aristotle's teaching on the singular essence of things differentiated by their accidents (secondary attributes). The Latin language, being of a different nature, was used to discuss other theological questions, and only through the "transubstantiation" of this language, incorporating Orthodox theological issues into it, would linguistic and political unity in Eastern Europe be achieved. Another feature of the Lviv school was the creation of catechisms, widely distributed guides to the fundamentals of theology, presented in the form of questions and answers, akin to Plato's dialogues. In contrast, in medieval Christianity, catechisms referred to sermons aimed at those wishing to convert to Christianity and explaining Christian teachings in simple terms.

Prince Konstantin Ostrozhski acquired a printing house for the school and appealed to the Polish king to grant the institution university status. The prince hoped that the king, wary of the Jesuit monks—chief proponents of the Counter-Reformation who adhered too strictly to the will of Rome—would, for the sake of balance, choose to support the Orthodox. The king hesitated for a long time but ultimately did not reach a final decision. Subsequently, the Lviv school sought support from False Dmitry during his campaign against Moscow, but False Dmitry lacked the authority to act on Polish lands from the perspective of the Polish crown. Meanwhile, all Orthodox higher education institutions in the Commonwealth supported False Dmitry, as well as all those participating in the campaign against Moscow, hoping to establish new universities on Muscovite territories.

After the defeat of False Dmitry and the resurgence of Moscow, the Jesuits seized the opportunity to retaliate, and in 1624, they captured the Ostrozhska Academy, transforming it into their own college. It is worth noting that Jesuit colleges became a model for contemporary secondary schools, representing the first mass rather than individual education: the Jesuits invented classes, attendance registers, paired desks, numerous interim exams, grading scales, and written assignments. The goal of Jesuit schools was to unite students into classes to manage their imaginations, thus creating broadly educated individuals capable of solving unconventional problems and collaborating effectively, drawing upon their experience of class unity for collective actions in unfamiliar settings.

Ostrog fell, while Kyiv began to rise. In Kyiv, a brotherhood also emerged, supported by local Cossack officers, and the wife of one Cossack general contributed funds for the establishment of a school. The rector was invited from Lviv to ensure the educational programs met high standards. In 1620, Hetman Petro Sahaydachnyi received a document from Patriarch Theophanes regarding the stavropigial status (direct submission to the patriarch) of the Kyiv school. The crux of the matter was that an Orthodox bishop sent by the patriarch served in Kyiv, whom the Polish authorities did not recognize, and the Cossacks decided that if all the priests ordained by this bishop had university education, sooner or later their church would have to be acknowledged.

The Kyiv Academy was initially situated, much like some of the early European universities, within a monastery. The first rector of the Kyiv school, Isaiah Kopynsky, decided, in particular, to adopt the statutes of the Athonite monasteries for the institution, seeing several advantages therein: it prescribed daily reading of books, established thoughtful intervals for rest, utilized mechanical clocks to measure time, and combined frequent communal worship—not merely once a week—with self-study sessions. At the same time, the Athonite statutes were also adopted by the Lviv Academy and several monasteries in the region, thanks to Bishop Isaac of Lutsk, who had lived on Athos in his youth. In order to provide reading materials, all children of aristocrats entering monastic life at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra were instructed to donate property for the purchase of books.

However, a challenge emerged in Kyiv: in 1632, the Sejm finally recognized the Orthodox brotherhoods as legal entities throughout the Commonwealth, causing Orthodox bishops and their clerical staff to fear that a brotherhood dictatorship would ensue. Consequently, in 1633, Peter Mohyla, the son of the Wallachian hospodar, secured acknowledgment from the Polish king of his position as Metropolitan of Kyiv and acted decisively, merging the Kyiv brotherhood school with his private Latin school—which emulated the curricula of Latin colleges—into a single academy. Peter Mohyla dismissed all bishops, abbots, and professors, starting anew, ultimately earning the respect of both Kraków and the Cossack elite. A hallmark of the academy he established was the theological debates held every Saturday, in which all students were required to participate, as well as the relatively long duration of studies; for instance, the study of poetics (the rules of versification, which provided a general literary culture and fostered imaginative culture, as in Jesuit schools) was conducted separately from rhetoric. At the highest level, theology was studied, with no fixed number of years prescribed, relying mainly on independent work—one might compare the theological class to our postgraduate studies. Additionally, students assisted Peter Mohyla himself in compiling books.

When the Polish king demanded that Peter Mohyla close the school, accusing it of Protestantism based on the fact that each student engaged in theology according to an individualized program, Peter simply disregarded this order. In 1659, after the founder's death, the Academy received university status according to the Treaty of Hadiach, which first recognized Ukraine's political subjectivity within the Commonwealth, with the stipulation of overseeing all other schools to ensure that neither professors nor students were Protestants or Arians (those who denied the Trinity, originating from new scientific notions of beginnings as the starting point of things, indivisible by three—an Arian in England was Isaac Newton, and there were quite a few in Poland).

The first university in Moscow should be regarded as Theodor Rtishchev's school at the Andreevsky Monastery, opened in 1649. All professors of this institution were graduates of the brotherhood schools of the Commonwealth. In this school, philosophy was studied by commenting on the works of John of Damascus in class. Patriarch Nikon relocated this school to the Kremlin and relied on the labor of its professors and alumni to publish new editions of books, but the failure of his church reforms also led to the decline of the school.

Subsequently, only private schools were established in Moscow, which could not be considered universities since they trained graduates solely for one specific field. For instance, one of them, intended for training diplomats, was founded in 1664 by Simeon Polotsky; in 1667, a school for future preachers opened at one of the Moscow churches; and in 1679, Patriarch Joachim established a printing school, which might also be regarded as a specialized institution, as the printing house held a monopoly on book production in the Muscovite state.

The sole attempt to create a university outside Moscow before Peter the Great was a school established in Usolye, in the Permian lands. In these territories, ruled by the Stroganov dynasty, iconographers from Moscow's icon-painting workshops sometimes relocated for personal reasons, so it was not surprising that bookmen followed in their wake. This school was founded by a priest who brought with him a library from Moscow, containing books by Simeon Polotsky and other textbooks, and such a university began operating on the enthusiasm of a single individual.

Ultimately, after numerous court intrigues, the Slavo-Greek-Latin Academy was established in Moscow in 1682, marking the beginning of the history of universities in our country. This institution prepared both printing workers and preaching priests—thus fulfilling the university's purpose of educating individuals from diverse specializations. The academy's founders, brothers Ioanniky and Sophroniy Likhudy, introduced differentiation among specializations, simply by categorizing the subject of rhetoric. The unified science was divided into three specializations—divine rhetoric, namely, church preaching and the composition of liturgical poetic-musical works; heroic rhetoric, which entailed political eloquence aiding in the achievement of goals and avoidance of political conflicts, vital for politicians and diplomats; and human rhetoric, aimed at convincingly addressing practical issues, including the preparation, publication, and dissemination of books.

It is noteworthy that this program incited the ire of the Greek Patriarch Dosifey, who asserted that sooner or later it would lead to secular politicians, diplomats, and entrepreneurs gaining control over the church, for they would not be any less adept in theological matters and would outnumber the clergy. In other words, the practical orientation of the Moscow university, even for a Greek, the compatriot of the Likhudy brothers, seemed a violation not only of academic but also of ecclesiastical freedoms. In 1701, Peter I included medical training in the academy's curriculum, and from this point onward, a significant chapter in the history of university education in Russia commenced.