Institute of Sociology NASU

Anamnesis in sociology: from memory to knowledge

stmm. 2026 (1): 210–216

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2026.01.210

Full text: https://stmm.in.ua/archive/ukr/2026-1/17.pdf

VOLODYMYR SHELUKHIN, PhD, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Kyiv School of Economics (3, M. Shpaka St., Kyiv, 03113)

volodymyr.shelukhin@knu.ua

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8931-8757

Sociology has two main strategies in development theory: reflections on contradictions in the current set of empirical findings and reconsideration of historically absorbed conceptions. The essay presents reflections on lack of epistemological novelty of these strategies. If we use already known conceptions and designed according to them empirical studies, the risk of tautological explanations rises. The other supplementary source that could address this risk is the so-called “potential classics”, a set of superseded or forgotten conceptual approaches that could had – but did not – shape the direction of research path due to unfavorable historical circumstances, which were very often far removed from scientific reasons and depended on political and institutional contexts. The history of early Ukrainian sociology is full of such tendencies. Despite this fact, some of superseded approaches are still in use in research, as for example, Serhii Podolynsky’s (1850-1891) theory, which influenced Barcelona school of political ecology and ecological economics. “Potential” classics provide alternative options for theoretical imagination and, in some sense, could be closer to the current challenges of Ukrainian sociology than patterns that originated in the shadow of Soviet past, as it demonstrated by the case of the Ukrainian Sociological Institute functioning as a private research organization in interwar Prague. The essay also emphasizes the importance of another way of looking at the history of early sociology in general and Ukrainian in particular. Early sociology development took place in a period when distinct boundaries between fields were absent, and the formation of sociology was influenced by from domains even beyond science, including culture, arts, literature, and others. Therefore, the author insists that the history of early Ukrainian sociology should be studied rather as the history of culture than as the history of isolated science, as is more common today. In case of “potential” classics, work with theories is similar to anamnesis.

Keywords: potential classics, anamnesis, history of sociology, social epistemology

Referenes:

1. Potential classics: superseded, forgotten, and uncovered in the history of Ukrainian sociology (June 5-6, 2024): conference proceedings. (2024). Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. [In Ukrainian]. All-Ukrainian Sociological Journal "SVOYE", 17.06.2024. Retrieved from: https://svoye.wordpress.com/2024/06/17/%D0%BF%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%86%D1%96%D0%B9%D0%BD%D0%B0-%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%96%D1%81%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B5-%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%82%D0%B5/

2. Shelukhin, V. (2023). Reading (pre)classical texts: principles of the critical poetics of sociology. [In Ukrainian]. In: Point of Divergence: Sociology and Economics in the Shadow of Their Origins (pp. 325-335). Kyiv: Lira-K.

3. Shelukhin, V. (2024). Ukrainian Sociological Institute: faction policy, research, and intelligence services in origin of Ukrainian sociology. [In Ukrainian]. Sociology: Theory, Methods, Marketing, 1, 110-157. https://doi.org/10.15407/sociology2024.01.110

Received 15.12.2025

Accepted for publication after review 07.01.2026