History of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences
of the Humanities and Law Faculty
of the National Aerospace University
"Kharkiv Aviation Institute"

The history of the Department of Philosophy begins in the distant 1930s with the founding of Khai, when the Department of Socio-Economic Disciplines was headed by Sukhov. During the war years, the department and the institute were evacuated to Kazan, and Aleksandrov, a graduate of the 1st faculty of Khai Khai, was appointed head of the department, a versatile and erudite person, an interesting and bright lecturer, who was respected by teachers and students even in the post-war period. From the beginning of the 60s, the department was headed by an experienced leader, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Bystrov.

At this time, in September 1960, a graduate of the law institute, and later a doctor of philosophy, an honored employee of a higher school and an excellent student of Ukrainian education, professor Kim Bayrachny, began working at the department. He became not only a constant leader for more than 30 years, but also a mentor, creating a creative and highly intellectual atmosphere around him and defining the philosophical spirit of the department. In his candidate's and doctor's theses, very relevant, problematic, and at that time still delicate questions of the philosophical foundations of statehood were investigated. Bayrachny's scientific research and methodological developments were recognized not only in Ukraine and the countries of the former USSR, but also abroad. He repeatedly completed internships at universities in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Germany, where he gave author's courses of lectures.

Kim Bayrachny

The further expansion of the institute and the increase in the importance of humanities in social and scientific life led to the separation in September 1967 of the Department of Philosophy and Scientific Communism, and then, in 1978, the Department of Philosophy as an independent division of the KAI, which was headed by Kim Bayrachny.

Professor Bayrachny was especially attentive to the selection of professional staff at the Department of Philosophy. The beginning of a new stage of the department's development is the invitation of a group of young graduates from various universities of the country who had a basic philosophical education. At that time, philosophy faculties existed in four cities: Kolomiets was invited from Kyiv, Korogodov, Korogodova, Kuznetsov, Ryazantseva, Protsenko from Moscow, Kovalevska, Kachurov from Leningrad, and Magomedov from Ryazan. Thus, in the 1970s and 1980s, the department raised the professional level of teaching philosophical disciplines, intensified scientific research and methodical work, and later young specialists defended their candidate and doctoral theses.

Discussion of Kundenko's candidate's thesis, prof. Bayrachny

From that time, the department began searching for scientific styles and conceptual spaces, which contributed to the formation of an independent philosophical school. Bearing in mind that the main function of the scientific school is research work, it should be noted that Professor Bayrachniy perfectly coped with the role of both an organizer and an educator of young scientists, which contributed to the intensification of scientific research at the department.

In different years, professors Stepiko, Budko, Korogodov, Gordienko-Mitrofanova, Protsenko, Chernienko worked at the philosophy department; associate professors Korogodov, Kolomiets, Nevecherya, Magomedov, Ryazantseva, Kundenko, Plahotnyk; teachers Korchak, Yurkova and others.

In 1991, the department opened a postgraduate course in the specialty "Ontology, epistemology, phenomenology", on the basis of which 17 candidate's and 4 doctoral theses were successfully defended. Among the recipients of scientific degrees were graduates of KhAI.

Thus, under the scientific guidance of Bayrachny, Kachurov ("Philosophy of the ideology of modern reason", 1995), Bilchuk ("Cardiocentrism as a methodological principle of a holistic understanding of society and man", 2001) defended their candidate's theses, and Kuznetsov ( "Philosophical discourses of marginal chronotopes", 2009), Chernienko ("Identity of the social subject in the context of socio-cultural transformations", 2011).

The teachers of the department fruitfully cooperate with young post-graduate students - graduates of Khai Khai and other universities. The result of their scientific activity is protected candidate dissertations. So, under the leadership of Ryazantseva, Daragan ("Actualization of personality as the interaction of rational and irrational", 2002) is defended, Korogodova - Iordaki ("Methodological foundations of the formation of spirituality", 2003), and with the support of Kovalevska - Plahotnyk ("Philosophy of sub object in the educational space", 2004).

Gradually, the main topics of research are formed in the scientific work of the department, which later became the foundation of the general research work on the topic "Philosophy of the identity of the social subject". 

As a result of scientific-theoretical studies of current problems of philosophical knowledge conducted at the department under the leadership of Professor Olga Protsenko, a direction was formed in which scientists turned to the interpretation of the axiological dimension of the socio-cultural space of modern society. The result of this work was the study of various phenomena of the social and cultural space, which opened a wide path to the scientific world for their authors: Kundenko ("Everyday life as a reality of cultural reality", 1999), Oleninii ("Advertising as a phenomenon of artistic culture", 2000 ), Selevka ("The temple as a cultural universal of human social existence", 2004), Dmytrenko "Business communication as a phenomenon of social reality", 2006), Melnyk ("Ritual as a socio-cultural phenomenon", 2010), Shirokiy " Stereotype of behavior in modern communicative culture", 2010).

In 2004, Protsenko successfully defended her dissertation for the Doctor of Philosophy degree - "Etiquette as an axiological dimension of the culture of behavior and communication." Later, she headed the department of philosophy at the Kharkiv National University of Construction and Architecture.

One of the most promising directions of research at the Department of Philosophy has become the socio-philosophical and methodological understanding of the phenomenon of marginality under the leadership of Professor Anatoliy Kuznetsov of the KhAI, who headed the department from 2000 to 2011. The most significant scientific results and methodological developments on this topic were reflected in candidate theses: Gordienko-Mitrofanova ("Invariants of the axiosphere of the marginal (on the example of penitentiary institutions)", 1999), Chernienka ("Methodological foundations of the social philosophy of marginal periods", 2000), Svyaschuk ("The phenomenon of marginality in the genesis of the information society", 2006 ), Danilyana ("The formation and development of the information society in the era of globalization (social and philosophical analysis)", 2006), Pustovit "The nature of the axiosphere of the information society", 2015), Chernienko "Methodology of the identity of the social subject", 2018 r.).

In 2008, Kuznetsov defended his doctoral thesis "Philosophical Discourses of Marginal Chronotopes", thereby generalizing and bringing the research of his graduate students to a new level and suggesting ways of further work. Anatoliy developed and implemented courses for students and postgraduates "Methodology of scientific research", "Didactics of higher education", "Comparative analysis of world religions", etc.

On the initiative of Kuznetsov, the KHAI and the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine became the founders of the scientific-educational-production complex "Academy of Distance Education" (ADO), which united about 40 national universities of Ukraine. He was elected a member of the council. He is a member of the editorial board of the journals "Bulletin of the Academy of Distance Education", "Humanitarian Magazine", participates in the International Congress of Philosophy in Greece, and is published in the anthologies of Hungary, Germany, and Japan.

Anatoliy Kuznetsov

From 2011 to 2018, the department of philosophy was headed by Volodymyr Chernienko, a former graduate of the aircraft engineering faculty. He completed postgraduate studies at the Department of Philosophy and defended his thesis for the degree of Candidate of Philosophical Sciences, and in 2011 he defended his thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophical Sciences. Chernienko is the author of more than a hundred scientific articles, educational and teaching-methodical manuals. He worked as the responsible secretary of the professional collection of scientific works "Humanitarian Journal" (KHAI). Developed and taught the courses "Fundamentals of Philosophical Knowledge", "Logic", "Philosophy of Science and Technology", "Religious Studies".

Volodymyr Chernienko

Professor Chernienko developed an innovative modular course, which became the basis for the scientific work "Philosophy of the Identity of a Social Subject". Theoretical and methodological developments on this topic were presented in many articles, monographs ("The nature of the foundations of the identity of a social subject"), they were included as separate subsections in textbooks, they were used in the encyclopedia "Newest political vocabulary (neologisms, occasionalisms and other innovations ): encyclopedic dictionary-reference" (Lviv, 2015).

In 2016, the department opened a postgraduate course in the specialty "Philosophy". Currently, three graduate students are studying at the department, who are conducting research in the problematic field of socio-philosophical foundations of marginal societies and the philosophy of the identity of a social subject in the context of socio-cultural transformations. Professors and associate professors of the department have developed special courses, within which graduate students study the problems of social philosophy, philosophy of history, globalization processes of modernity, problems of morphology and typology of history, etc.

Every year, the teachers of the department publish scientific articles and theses in specialized publications, hold up to six methodological seminars.

Recently, the number of students studying in English has increased significantly, and the teachers of our department are responding to the challenges of modern education. Among the subjects that are currently taught to foreigners are the courses "Philosophy" and "Didactics of the higher school", which are built taking into account cultural and linguistic features. In order to improve the level of teaching, multimedia courses were created and educational manuals were published in English "History of philosophy: course briefly Tutorial" (A. Svyashchuk, S. Shiroka), "Philosophy: basic concepts: tutorial" (A. Svyashchuk, S. Shiroka , A. Kuznetsov).

Department of Philosophy 2019

Since 2018, the department has been headed by Candidate of Philosophical Sciences, Associate Professor Natalya Bilchuk.

Natalya Bilchuk

The department has a website www.k701.khai.edu.ua, which contains all information about teachers, main scientific programs, a list of questions for exams and tests, as well as literature that is in demand among graduate students and students, but which is not available in the university library. With the help of the site, feedback is provided to students, which makes it possible to quickly manage the educational process at the department.

In the two reading rooms of the Department of Philosophy, conditions have been created for the fruitful work of students, graduate students and university employees. The methodological office is equipped with the necessary literature and periodicals, equipped with computers and other equipment.

Since 2020, the Department of "Philosophy" has existed in a new format as the Department of "Philosophy and Social Sciences" under the leadership of Doctor of Philosophy, Professor Olga Protsenko. The educational work of the department is focused on teaching such disciplines as philosophy, sociology, history of Ukraine and a number of optional courses at 3 educational levels - bachelors, masters and postgraduate students.

Olga Protsenko

Teaching and support staff of the methodical office, head. office Olga Haplevska is a high-level professional. It helps to effectively prepare for classes, exams and assessments in all disciplines taught at the department. Haplevska takes an active part in creative activities of the university, is a member of the vocal studio of KhАІ.

Haplevska as part of the vocal studio of KhАІ