Peculiarities of the socialising role of natural history museums under conditions of transformation of the Ukrainian society

An overview of the potential role of natural history museums in the socialisation of citizens under conditions of revolutionary worldview changes is presented, the meaning of which in Ukraine is the reinvention and final formation of the political nation and civil society. The unique set of means of information presentation and unobtrusive influence on visitors that a museum can offer for socialisation were analysed in the context of N. Lugman’s vision of society as a complex of cycles of self-reference and autopoiesis, which is realised through interpersonal and public communications. The power of the inertia of interpersonal communication is conclusive, both in the promotion of new ideas and in resistance to their influence. Therefore, reforms of society are impossible without systemic changes at this level, for which language serves as the main mediator. Language is identified as the basis for other ‘communication facilitators’: the means of storing and transmitting information and the ‘generalised exchange mediators’ that are increasingly the product of public communication. Analysing the modern changes that a museum must take into account, both in relations with the audience and in the content of messages, they are considered as a consequence of the finalisation or ‘change of sign’ in various-scale fluctuations of social and cultural dynamics, which embody fluctuations in the confrontation of certain oppositional principles. The most short-term of them in Ukraine turned out to be changes in European integration sentiments and the corresponding actions of the authorities. A fragment of the longest confrontation can be considered the transition of Humanity from the realities of state-caste societies, which are about six thousand years old, to the ideals of civil society, which is just beginning to form. For changes in the field of philosophy, the transition from the narratives of postmodernism to the foundations of metamodernism, which, in particular, includes the ‘new ontology’ of M. Hartman, has become significant. An overview of ideas and narratives that the National Museum of Natural History can share with the audience are offered. At the same time, the content of ideas and narratives is adjusted by the provisions of ontology in the interpretation of N. Hartman, and considerations regarding the possible forms of presenting information are oriented, first of all, to the understanding of the age-related features of its perception by J. Piaget.