About us

The Department of Philosophy, as an independent unit, was established in 1959. The first head of the department (from 1959 to 1961) was Associate Professor L.V. Sohan. Later the department was headed by associate professors I.O. Ustinov (1961–1973), I.Y. Smirnov (1973-1982), V.G. Levchuk (1982–1993), from May 1993 to June 2018 – Doctor of Philosophy Sciences, Prof. A.P. Alekseenko. From June 2018, the head of the department is a Doctor of Philosophy Sciences, Prof. K.I. Karpenko.
A significant contribution to the development of the department was made by teachers participants of the Great Patriotic War: Buganov G.O., Kalashnik V.M., Lozovyk V.K., Golubnichy G.K., Zavorin P.I., Kulik G.F., Bransburg E.D., Belik V.L.
In the early 2000s, the work at the department changed significantly. Along with philosophy, new courses appeared: religious studies, sociology. Later, among the elective courses began to teach ethics, sociology and medical sociology, developed a course “Etiquette in society and medicine” and a number of other innovative courses. New young teachers with professional sociological education appeared – Sedaya Y.S., Marushchenko O.A., who defended their dissertations while working at our university.
The beginning of the XXI century became an important milestone in the development of the department. Doctors of Philosophy appeared among the teachers. In 2006, Karpenko K.I. was the first to defend her doctoral dissertation on “Gender dimension of environmental communication”, and in 2007 Alekseenko A.P. defended her doctoral dissertation on “The Nature of Spirituality”. These two areas of philosophical discourse have become the main in the scientific and practical work of the department. In 2012, the Center for Gender Education of KhNMU was established, headed by Prof. Karpenko K.I.
Prof. Alekseenko A.P. focused on the problems of spirituality. These two topics became the quintessence of the department’s scientific and scientific-practical activities.
Associate Professor Honcharenko L.O. during many years of work at the department pays considerable attention to the cultural, educational, and scientific activities of students.
Currently, new employees are contributing to the development of the department. These are doctors of philosophical sciences Abashnik V.O. and Filyanina N.M., Candidate of Sociological Sciences Fedorenko O.O., teacher Moskvin Y.V., the defense of his dissertation is scheduled for December 2021, as well as part-time teachers: A.A. Guzhva, T.M. Dyshkant, І.V. Tolstov, A.V. Rohova.

The Department of Philosophy of Kharkiv National Medical University was established in 1959. The main activities of the department include educational, teaching, and research work.
The staff of the department provides the educational process with modern educational and methodical materials: for the last 5 years, more than 20 educational and methodical developments and manuals have been prepared. Scientific work focuses on the study of human problems in socio-humanitarian and medical contexts. Employees of the department are members of Ukrainian and international scientific organizations and associations, as well as members of the editorial boards of professional publications. The department fruitfully cooperates with educational institutions of different regions of Ukraine, as evidenced by agreements on scientific and practical cooperation. At the international level, it cooperates with the University of Paderborn (Germany) and other scientific and educational institutions.
In 2012, the Center for Gender Education was established at the department, which was headed by Doctor of Philosophy, Professor Karpenko K.I. The center assists teachers and students of the university in the implementation of ideas of gender equality in the educational process, in the study and implementation of gender approaches to basic disciplines.
Within the framework of scientific-methodical and scientific-educational work the department conducts the following scientific events: (1) International scientific-practical conference “Gender. Ecology. Health ”(2007, 2008, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021). (2) Intercollegiate scientific-practical conference “The problem of man in socio-humanitarian and medical discourses” – is held every 2 years.
In 2021, the VII International Interdisciplinary Scientific and Practical Conference “Gender. Ecology. Health”, which was attended by representatives of 12 countries.
The department pays considerable attention to cultural and educational work with students, organizes trips to theaters, museums, scientific exhibitions, which provide material for analysis and generalizations during seminars.

Normative courses are taught at the department: “Philosophy”, “General Sociology”, “Etiquette in Society. Etiquette in Medicine” and “Ethics of Social Work”, as well as elective courses: “Ethics”, ”Ethical Problems of Medicine”, “Sociology and Medical Sociology”, ”Fundamentals of Christian Ethics and Morality”, “Philosophy of Family and Career”, ”Inequality and discrimination in society”, “Academic integrity”, “Etiquette in society and medicine”, “Emotional intelligence”, “Social Audit and Inspection”, “ Professional Ethics”, “Philosophy of Education” and “Sociological Research in Education”. Syllabuses have been developed for all these courses and methodical instructions have been prepared.
Since 1997, classes are also conducted in English. Every year, the department undergoes in-depth training in the course “Philosophy of Science” for more than 50 graduate students.
The staff of the department provides the educational process with modern educational and methodical materials: for the last 5 years, more than 20 educational and methodical developments and manuals from all the above disciplines have been prepared and published.

The theme of the main scientific person of the department is “The problem in the socio-humanitarian and medical discourses.” Together with other departments of the university, the department participates in the development of a complex topic “Health of a healthy person”.
Topics of research of the department staff: gender issues, communicative philosophy, spirituality and medicine, development of national education, problems of culture and values, issues of legal culture, sociology of medicine, etc. Teachers of the department together with students take part in conferences of different levels according to the subject. In August 2018, Acting head departments, prof. Karpenko K.I. took part in the XXIV World Philosophical Congress in Beijing, 10-th International Congress “Within and beyond environmentalist history, August 21-25, 2019, Tallinn. Prof. Karpenko K.I. spoke as a keynote speaker at the 18th Congress of the International Association of Women Philosophers “Defining the Future, Rethinking the Past”, held Paderborn (Germany) July 15-21, 2021.
Associate Professor O.A. Marushchenko completed an internship in the best educational institutions in Sweden within the “Educational Tour to the Swedish Education System” (May 11-16, 2019, 48 hours), gaining competence, skills, and knowledge of educational and management technologies for the implementation of non-discriminatory strategies in classrooms, development of practices of social and emotional learning, empathic model of communication and education of peace in a multicultural context.
The department has concluded agreements on scientific and methodological cooperation with the National Literary and Memorial Museum of G.S. Scovoroda and Cherkassy State Technological University. The staff of the department for many years maintains close cooperation with scientists from related departments of many free economic zones and first of all with V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University and National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”.
Professors of the department are members of the Specialized Scientific Councils: Prof. Karpenko K.I. (Specialized Academic Council D 26.161.02, G.S. Scovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), Prof. Abashnik V.O. (Specialized Academic Council K 64.051.06, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University), Prof. Filyanina N.M. (Specialized Academic Council D 76.051.08 of Yuri Fedkovych National University of Chernovtsy). Professors Abashnik V.O. and Filyanina N.M. have scientific articles in journals that are indexed in the scientific metric databases Scopus and Web of Science.

Since 2007, the department is the organizer and coordinator of the International scientific-practical conference “Gender. Ecology. Health”, which involves scientists from more than 15 countries. Since 1998, the department has been holding scientific and practical conferences with international participation for teachers, young scientists, students of KhNMU, and other universities of the city on key issues of philosophy and medicine, thus establishing interdisciplinary international relations.
The department cooperates with the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Women in the History of Philosophy and Science at the University of Paderborn (Germany) and the Institute of Gender Medicine (Charité Clinic, Germany).
Head of the department Karpenko K.I. is a member of the International Association of Women Philosophers (since 2001), a member of the Coordinating Council of the Ukrainian-German Scientific Society (since 2016), a member of the International Organization “Gender and Education” (GEA) (since 2015).
Prof. Karpenko K.I. is a member of the editorial board of the book range “Women Philosophers and Scientists”, Springer publishing house, Germany from 2016 to the present.
Professor of the department Abashnik V.O. is a member of scientific societies, in particular: J.G. Fichte International Society (since 1997), Schelling International Society (since 1998), Leibniz International Society (since 2001), Hegel International Society (since 2002), the Kant Society in Ukraine (since 2003), the Steller International Society (since 2007).
Associate Professor O. A. Marushchenko is a member of the International Association of Sociologists. He is currently involved in International educational projects: Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning (Emory University, USA) – expert, facilitator (2019 – present); “SIMSCHOOL: simulation games for the study of human rights” (NGO “CRISP”, Germany; NGO “EdCamp Ukraine” in partnership with the European Union) ─ expert, trainer (2020-2021).