Novytsky, Orest

Novytsky, Orest [Новицький, Орест; Novyc'kyj], b 6 February 1806 in Pylypy, Zhytomyr county, Volhynia gubernia, d 16 June 1884 in Kyiv. Philosopher. After graduating from the Kyiv Theological Academy in 1831, he taught philosophy at the theological seminary in Pereiaslav (formerly Pereiaslav College) and then at the Kyiv Theological Academy (1834–5) and Kyiv University (1834–50), where he became a full professor in 1837 and served as dean of the philosophy faculty (1838–9, 1840–1, 1845–6, 1846–50). At the same time he served as an official censor of Polish-language and, later, foreign publications (1837–69). He wrote, in Russian, a book on the Doukhobors (1832; rev edn 1892); textbooks for his courses on experimental psychology (1840) and logic (1841, 1844), all of them based largely on F. Fischer’s German textbooks; and a monograph on the gradual development of philosophical doctrines in relation to the development of pagan beliefs (4 vols, 1860–1). His views on philosophy, expressed in several articles, owed much to those of G. Hegel (see Hegelianism).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]