Everyone should make their biography themselves
On Tuesday, November 2, admirers of the outstanding Ukrainian philosopher, one of The Day’s active and permanent authors, member of the National Academy of Sciences, and director of the Hryhorii Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy at the NAS of Ukraine Myroslav Popovych, could see the premiere of a documentary film The Roads of Myroslav Popovych (written and directed by Oleksandr Frolov). The documentary was made by Kontakt film studio, and supported by a charitable foundation “Development of Ukraine.” The Day asked the scholar Popovych to answer a few short questions which might become a kind of “foreword” to the film.
Dr. Popovych, could you tell us about the concept preceding the making of the film? Who had the idea to make it, and who took an active part in implementing it? How did you cooperate with the authors of the film?
“Kontakt studio offered me to have such a film made by them. This idea was discussed back in the times when the unforgettable Larysa Rodnianska, the inspirer of the entire design, was still alive. And since I personally knew many of the people, with whom I was to work on the film, to be talented professionals (the director Oleksandr Frolov is just one example), I readily accepted the offer.
“After that, everything was done according to the script and the choice of the authors of the film (besides Frolov, there were the cameraman Dmytro Shevchenko and the composer Ihor Poliarush). There was no way I could determine the ‘ideology’ of this film. I can only say that I am happy to have been ‘a subject’ for such masters.”
Which means that personally you liked the film, didn’t you?
“Speaking of the film as a work of art, yes, I did. It’s not up to me to judge if the information concerning me is presented as true or false. Making a film (not only this one, but any one) interesting for the audience has always been a mystery to me. Evidently, this is the case in this piece. It is proved by the film’s surprise end. By the way, it made me burst out into a sincere and thankful laugh.”
Let us try and go beyond the frames of this particular film, and ask a somewhat broader question. The film is entitled The Roads of Myroslav Popovych. What kind of philosophic generalization could be made (you’re not only a renowned philosopher, but also a man of immense experience): what exactly in a person’s life depends on his or her conscious choice and will, and what on outside circumstances?
“Frankly, if you look at my personal road from a purely formal perspective, I’m sure you will not be able to find many interesting things there. Some road, indeed! A university student who later completed a postgraduate course, found a job at the Institute of Philosophy, and spent all his life at the Institute, from junior researcher to director. Actually, this is what my personal road boils down to. A period.
“And yet, as far as I understand, the authors of the film did not strive to show the stages of my career. Instead, they wanted to show the ‘road’ as a spiritual category, a thing of world outlook. You can feel this. Maybe, the depiction of that road is a little didactic: besides being a co-author, I have got a lot of experience as an educator. However, it is not the professing or the confessing that matters. The point is that each individual, eventually, determines his or her biography. Not the career, because it perhaps depends on the circumstances. Like they say, had it not been for the circumstances, my career could have been better.
“No, this is a matter of a person’s inner world, because the major choices Man faces are moral choices. Of course it is very hard to live a life without making mistakes or going astray (and I cannot say that I was able to avoid it), but let us think about this together. Human life is so beautiful, so infinitely valuable, and many of us are aware of this idea of life being valuable, without actually giving it another thought. The ideas of life being valuable must be heard and seen, through love for man. Each human being. That is why, I very seriously take the favorite phrase of the Christian saints: ‘God is love.’”
