NAS H. S. Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy was established in 1946. The Institute was headed by Acad. M. E. Omelianovsky (1946–52), Corr. Memb. D. K. Ostrianyn (1952–1962), Acad. P. V. Kopnin (1962–1968), Acad. V. I. Shynkaruk (1968–2001). NAS Acad. M. V. Popovych has been its director since 2001.
The Institute conducts fundamental research in six priority areas:
- logic, methodology and philosophy of science;
- philosophical problems of culture, ethics and esthetics;
- philosophical anthropology;
- social philosophy, philosophy of history and philosophy of ethnicity;
- history of Ukrainian and foreign philosophies;
- religion studies.
In those spheres, Institute’s scholars studied conceptual and formal tools for the analysis of scientific theories and language of science, new trends in the development of modern logic and natural sciences, they formulated the concept of spiritual activities structures, which takes into account the results of psychology of thinking, structural linguistics, ethnology, history of culture and communication theory. They aso studied the foundations of national culture, identity and authenticity of human existence in culture in their interrelations with the universal cultural process. They have found trends and conflicts of cultural-and-civilizational development, analyzed the anthropological context of Ukrainian and world philosophical ideas, studied the interrelations of anthropo-cultural and socio-cultural features etc. Besides, much attention was given to research in social philosophy, in particular, issues of ethnicity and nationality, to the history of Ukrainian and world philosophy, and to religion studies. The Institute has published a large number of fundamental works in all philosophy branches; many of them have won national and NAS prizes.
Nowadays the Institute employs 104 researchers: among them a NAS academician and a NAS corresponding member, 29 holders of ‘doctor-of-science’ degree and 69 holders of ‘candidate-of-science’ degree, 3 members of the Ukrainian Academy of Political Sciences, 3 full members of the New York Academy of Sciences, 8 Honored Workers in Science and Technology of Ukraine.
In 2005 the Higher School of Philosophy was established within the Institute, which provides advanced training courses for philosophy teachers. The school aims at mastering the main principles and current trends in the development of philosophycal ideas.