Hohotsky, Sylvestr

Hohotsky, Sylvestr [Гогоцький, Сильвестр; Hohots’kyj, Syl’vestr], b 17 January 1813 in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Podilia gubernia, d 11 July 1889 in Kyiv. Philosopher and pedagogue. He graduated from the Kyiv Theological Academy in 1837 and remained there to teach Polish and German languages and philosophy. In 1848 he was appointed professor of philosophy and in 1851 professor of pedagogy at Kyiv University. Hohotsky was influenced mostly by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and developed a vague theistic philosophy. His most important contribution to philosophy was Filosofskii leksikon (Philosophical Lexicon, 4 vols, 1857–73). At first a Ukrainophile and a contributor to Osnova (Saint Petersburg), he later opposed the Ukrainian movement.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]