The problem of the epoch. In Orlyk, No. 10, 1947 (May), pp. 4-8.

The article presents the response of Viktor Ber (one of the pseudonyms of Viktor Petrov) to the article ‘Theory of the Age and Modernity’ by Borys Krupnytskyi and constitutes one of the elements of the general discussion between the two scholars that unfolded on the pages of the Orlyk journal in 1947. The subject of Krupnytskyi`s criticism is Petrov's seeming rejection of the idea of historical development and the use of the concept of the negation of one epoch by another in the historiosophical concept of the change of epochs (Middle Ages, Modern Times, and Our Time). According to Petrov, Krupnytskyi did not quite understand his thesis about the idea of development in history: ‘...I do not reject the idea of development; I reject the idea of development in the sense that the 19th century gave to this concept, which proceeded from the image-idea of a single and universal civilization, which develops undoubtedly according to the universal and always identical principle of linear progress’ (p. 6). In the end, Petrov 1) defends the idea of the complexity of historiosophical issues, in which Krupnytskyi`s concept of ‘layering of epochs’ seems simplistic; 2) emphasizes the significance of the thesis stated in his previous works about the existence of both epochal (peculiar only to a certain epoch) and extra-epochal (cross-cutting for different epochs) categories and phenomena, which serves as further confirmation of the groundlessness of Krupnytskyi`s accusation that Petrov's historiosophy is based on the complete negation of one epoch by another.

Vlada Davidenko