Among the factors and criteria of social progress, moral culture holds a special place, for it is the system of self-determination in society. It includes the notions and concepts of person and society, good and evil, the purpose and meaning of life, honor and duty, freedom and responsibility, justice and dignity, love amd friendship, traditions, rituals, customs, norms, rules, principles, models of conduct, ideals and national and common values which were transformed in conformity with the values, emotions, senses, persuasions, views, acts, vital activities, models of life and personal qualities. These are also the main support of the moral culture whose principal function is the regulation of mutual relations of man with nature, society and other peoples.

Moral culture is a reflex product of man and society. It is also the moral rules which correct the mutual relations between people, their consciousness, psychology, acts and vital activities. The beginning of morality, its imperatives and taboos at the dawn of human history, reflect an understanding that man lives not by himself without other people, but must have some rules for social life. Upon that thesis, we draw the following conclusions:

First, morality began at the same time as human society and before moral culture.

Second, the concepts of morality and moral culture are interconnected, but are not identical, the latter being broader than the former.

Third, at the present time moral culture is developing and improves human life through individual forms of activity and social-historical practice.

Fourth, the essence of moral culture is to become aware of every man as necessarily related to other people.

Fifth, the subjects of a moral culture must include everyone in order to improve persons and society in their indissoluble and versatile connections and interconnections.

Moral culture is a measure of moral values and their practical realization in all the spheres of social activity by persons, groups, communities or society. An important characteristic of the subject of moral culture is an alignment of national and common values, with priority given to common values in consciousness, action, communications and practice. It is the formed self-awareness of man as a member of an ethnos, group, social stratum, society and, of course, his civic, social, human duties and responsibilities.

The spiritual-cultural values of the past attract our attention because we can see in them the orientation and foundation of our moral search for the purpose and meaning of life, social activity, happiness and goodness. In the new historical, social, economic and cultural situation it is necessary to understand this. The moral orientation for modern man can and must include the moral values, ideas and views of such famous scholars, poets and philosophers of Central Asia as Rudaky, Beruny, Farabi, Navoy, Ibn Sina and others.

For Rudaky good actions are the measure of the intellect. Al-Farabi thought that mutual aid must be a principle of collaboration as a condition for achieving human ideals. Beruni taught that duty is the main principle of "one’s achieving activity in the world," that knowledge is the way to improvement, and that one must care for other people. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) was convinced that justice and order will triumph if we support those who are positively related to them and restrain others who contradict them.

Alisher Navoy considered the role of man, the meaning and purpose of his life, to be the search for goodness, justice and understanding as the highest value and key to the self-improvement of his soul. Respect, friendship and love, according to Navoy, are the great values which improve and develop the human soul. They increase goodness and justice, and strengthen patriotism and humanism, which are the bonds between people and nations that transform a person in the world.

The highest social value of the culture is its unity. The acquisition of moral culture is founded upon the education of the intellect, emotions, senses and will. The brain is the basis of human actions; but one’s emotions constitute the internal, spiritual world of a person as a moral force confirming goodness, truth, beauty, responsibility, achievement, knowledge, patriotism, honor, duty, justice, friendship, love and dignity. Moral culture, therefore, concerns the formation, development and manifestation of the creative essence of man. The process of reforming society, its change, development and progress, are examples of the creative activity of man. At the same time the stability of society is a condition and foundation of social development. This cannot be described without its subject which is oriented by social, spiritual-moral values. In the process of such activity, one changes oneself and at the same time improves social relations, assisting in both their stabilization and their progress.

Orienting life on moral norms, ideas and principles manifests moral culture and strengthens the interconnections and interactions between people and their improvement. A human being has only the potential or possibility to be a "whole subject"; for its formation and development moral culture plays a great role, together with other components of culture and social-historical factors. Man and the world are connected and interact on the basis of moral values. The experience and practice of totalitarian society showed the communist moral to be erroneous both in the sphere of morality and in economics.

Moral culture is the complex of social and individual moralities. Individual morality is the means, method and form for the realization of the moral value of man and society. It is a condition and factor of the moral cultural development and the self-improvement of every person. The actions of the morally cultured person follow the norms, rules and principles of society. They do not contradict the main interests of man and society, but coordinate one’s activity with the interests of other people and subordinate one’s own interests to those of society. Therefore, individual and social morality, professional ethics and moral culture are important factors in the development of personality and social progress. This requires the highest development of social and individual consciousness and of the self-awareness, self-education and self-improvement of the person. By it one becomes aware of one’s needs and interests, and of one’s civil, professional, human duty, dignity and responsibility.

One of the main characteristics of personality is to be self-critical, that is to say, the ability to relate to oneself as to another person — the objective analysis of one’s own actions and the correction of one’s own mistakes. Self-improvement takes place through the connection between a self-critical personality and his or her sense of responsibility.

Moral culture is the creative activity of people and its result. Circumstances change and new tasks appear as people look for new activities, ways and methods of self-improvement. These are connected with the characteristics of the subject of moral activity and one’s spiritual and emotional experience. The foundation of the independent Republic of Uzbekistan has given strong impulse to the development of moral culture by awakening the social and moral activity of people.

This culture plays a great role in the realization of a society in which objective social relations, laws, norms and the moral atmosphere give persons the possibility and right to choose for oneself their convictions, profession, place and mode of life and self-improvement, thereby enabling one to transform one’s relations to oneself, to other people, to nature and to society. Moral norms, rights, principles, values and criteria are the basis of such transformations and moral culture is the main factor in the education of a personality and the promotion and progress of a society. As the subject of moral culture the person has special needs which conform with norms of morality as with his or her purpose, tasks and characteristics. The person respects laws and has rights shared by all members of society; one fulfills one’s duties according to the demands of morality and the progressive development of society.

Moral culture is manifested in human desires as one lives in accord with his group, society and nation. The human person has his or her own national and common values; one knows one’s place, role and responsibility before society and before oneself. It is a special state of emotions, consciousness, will, needs, wishes, interests, forms and methods manifest in all spheres of personal activity. The significance of the person depends upon one’s character, the level of knowledge and of the development of one’s consciousness, and upon the measure of one’s self-education and self-improvement. These are engaged in social practice as defining the purpose and meaning of one’s life.

Here the human is always the end, never the means (I. Kant). The development and self-improvement of the person and of society is the end. This is the task and foundation of moral culture because social progress has the improvement, self-improvement and development of persons as its main goal. For the development of modern civilization, moral culture is the main factor. Only this is able to safeguard positive achievements and exclude negative tendencies.

Every epoch needs a special moral culture for the person and society. The great significance of moral culture lies in its specific but non-coercive method of overcoming the negatives. These methods are: the system of education, information, self-education and self-improvement, social opinion, awareness of law and self-awareness, and, according to this, the methods, activity and practice of goodness. Moral culture is specific to a nation, but is a common and universal method of mutual understanding and collaboration between people as ethnicities, nations and countries. It is the main source and factor of social progress, because it has a great influence on social and individual consciousness and their activities and on the characteristics of social relations.

1. I.A. Karimov, Uzbekistan along the Road of the Deepening Economical Reforms (Tashkent, 1995), p. 202.