Social and Legal Studios

Abstract

The concept of mentality is widely used in modern science. It became a gain of public opinion, the subject of philosophical and socio-cultural reflection. Mentality permeates all human life, it is present at all levels of consciousness and behavior of people, and therefore, it is so difficult to find out its definition and to enter into any framework. Since national mentality is contained in a thought, and the thought is reflected in a language, so it is the content of each national language, and the national language is a form of national mentality. M. Hrushevsky tried to carry out an objective analysis of positive and negative features of a Ukrainian. Positive aspects of his character are believed to be integrity, spontaneous harmony, high level of well-being and deep inborn logic of thought, high cultural and social instincts, humane character and subtle ethical feeling, the desire for justice. Negative features are supposed to be the lack of consciousness, cultural, legal and political education, intelligence, the weakness of national instinct (especially with Eastern Ukrainians), national energy, national feeling. Another researcher of the mentality of Ukrainians S. Shelukhin considered the most characteristic feature of the Ukrainian people to be free-love, which they cherish most of all, the ability to science and crafts. He noted that the stay of Ukrainians for a long period in the structure of other states led to the destruction of the spirituality of Ukraine, the obscurity of national consciousness and the dulling of the sense of national and human dignity, the loss of historical memory and the neglect of historical traditions. A true Ukrainian possesses an invincible love to will and hatred for slavery and bondage, as evidenced by Cossack dumas, songs and other genres of folklore, a sense of dignity that can only be confirmed by freedom guaranteed by a complete economic independence (primarily private property), the basis of which is social equality, as well as such a state system that would ensure the rights and will of each citizen and contribute to the development of his abilities, in other words, which would correspond to the natural individualism of a Ukrainian – its characteristic tendency to self-expression. With the indicated ethnopolitical and ethnopsychological traits, especially freedom of love and equality, a close connection is made between self-respect and respect for the dignity of others, a tendency to certain traditionally established external forms, the so-called “legitimate things” (etiquette, love for purity, and order, the beauty of life). These traits bring Ukrainians closer to Western European culture – in some ways to the Germans, with their solidity, efficiency, love for comfort, order, purity, and in some ways to Romanesque culture – a desire for a shape, elegance, a wish to make everything beautiful, to highlight it in every sphere of life, in general – a bright and joyful look at life

Keywords: mentality, language, culture, legal consciousness, Ukrainian people, national specifics

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