How correct is this philosophy stated by one of the greatest thinkers?

The following is a postulate of ethical philosophy: morals are based upon autonomy, i.e. on the self-legislation, free self-determination and ontological self-sufficiency of a human spirit. If the ethical bases of the human "ego" are the ultimate foundations, then the ethical way of actions and ideas exists quite unrelated to the social, psychological, natural and other externals of the morale circumstances and conditions of a human existence.

According to Kant, a person can achieve the philosophical depth of understanding of his essence (and, consequently, the possibility "of taking the place he deserves" in the world) only by finding a way to transcend the world of daily experience and oneself as an empirical creature. Therefore self-determination in the normative contexts of socially sanctioned morals is not a guarantee of the high ontological quality and existential ingenuity of the ethical beliefs of a person.

Along with that this world, state, society, and this world of objective morals sets its own requirements for a person. Therefore the following issue is one of the most fundamental in ethical formation: how is it possible in the process of upbringing to combine the development of a personal moral conscience and an understanding by a person of the rules of socially sanctioned behaviour, that is, the free self-determination of a personality with its subordination to external objective normative structures.

A moral conscience is characteristic of each individual and is being formed and realized within his immediate daily experience. Philosophy is one of the most complicated types of ideological reflection, far beyond common daily understanding it is related both to the use of a specific language, special forms of reflection and to a special position with regard to reality. Martin Heidegger said that philosophizing is a crater engulfing a person who has been brought to the basis of things by his own metaphysical questions and thereby moved out of day-to-day life. Calicles – a character of one of Plato’s dialogues – teaches Socrates:

According to Kant, the point of morals is to fulfill one’s duty, expecting no reward in this world, it includes a high self-esteem from the realization of one’s own virtue, without reward in the other world. The spiritual-ethical basis of a human being is the ontological or absolute reality of an extreme foundation; therefore the moral law is in one’s conscience, rather than in customs, state and social institutions. "Morals needs no religion", says Kant. Its impact is by itself, i.e. it has autonomous foundations. Therefore the teachers of morals spoil a person by collecting stimuli to do good, these teachers set up "traps" to serve the ethical law. This reproach can be addressed against most pedagogical systems.

As a rule, pedagogies originate from a moralistic background that moral feelings and beliefs should be cultivated in the one who is being educated or formed. At the same time, pointing out some feelings and beliefs as a foundation for morals, a teacher, without knowing it, proceeds from thinking that it is these feelings and beliefs, these understandings of good and bad, that are moral; that is, he commits the "naturalistic fallacy". Philosophy should not preach virtue and reproach sin, but should show a person a basis in himself which will enable him to set out on the path of spiritual-moral transformation.

The ideal of free education corresponding to Kant’s "metaphysics of customs", was developed on the basis of the Enlightenment culture as a reasonable rationale for educational schemes. Komensky assumed that the educational process could be understood as a workshop where by means of "a didactic machine" one is turned into the personality needed by the community. Two great pedagogical reformers – Russo and Tolstoy – tried to implement the ideal of free education. According to Russo, sciences and arts, state institutions and laws, confessional dogmas and moral codes corrupted a person, turned a kind and free person into a wicked, hypocritical and selfish creature. Culture based upon a division of labour with private property and inequality, inevitably fragments a personality, limiting his spiritual-moral integrity to unilateral functions and abilities. Culture is artificial; domination of a mechanical rationality replaces real moral feeling. Russo’s and Tolstoy’s protest against culture means to fight for the moral ideal of a free and integral personality in line with a "natural, "free" education.

Lev Tolstoy thought that genuine education is acquired not at school, but in life. Therefore it is necessary to link the school with life. Tolstoy distinguishes between education and upbringing. Upbringing is by the influence of one person upon the other, it is formation of people according to well-known templates, and thus a moral despotism. But there is no moral right to force someone even for his own sake. Therefore children should be allowed to bring up themselves, to decided for themselves what their good is, to take the path they choose. Upbringing in itself is illegal; only education that is free interaction of equals is allowed. Therefore a teacher should have no power over the students and the school should be merely an educational institution, not for educational-upbringing. The school in Yasnaya Polyana was an effort to implement such an educational idea. In this school there was no enforcement called school discipline. For example, the students could leave the classes without asking the teacher’s permission. But rejecting external discipline did not solve the issue of the development in a child of the internal freedom, the ability to oppose influences, and to avoid the traps of both conformism and nihilism.

Pedagogical theory and systems of ethical-upbringing implement various models of integration of the personal-social whole, defining ideal forms of ethical reflection, boundaries of more stable stereotypes of behaviour, forms of interpersonal communication, and imperatives of institutional ethos.

1. A traditional type of integration of individuals into the social whole is based upon defined norms of behaviour. Ethical evaluation depends upon a degree of exemplary implementation of common norms and rules of behaviour. Therefore for this culture a normative-ideal type of a person is a personification of the basic social values and their hierarchy.

2. A market type of organization is based upon a spontaneous self-organization and self-regulation of the structures of coordination of private interests and objectives of individuals, whatever be their content, on the basis of formal-legal rules of behaviour.

In a traditional society public relations objectively had personal links and interdependencies, and the perfection of the social being depended upon personal moral qualities. Morally sanctioned norms constituted the entire content of the social whole, penetrating and determining all its spheres. Therefore systems of spiritual-ethical upbringing aimed at the opposite – personal self-awareness and following of social norms—coincided both in their goals and their foundations. In ancient China structuring of the ethical-social whole was done by the way of an ontologization of theethical-ritual norms of behaviour making up the bases of a traditional ceremonial culture. The system of rituals became a template for the design of an administrative-bureaucratic state machine, for the build-up of a hierarchical structure of a socium and quasi-legal forms of preserving order in the Empire. A Confucian moral metaphysics became an official state, ideological, ethico-religious, emotional-psychological metastructure of personal and social identity. This provided the basis for systems and institutions for educational-upbringing.

A Daoist sage or wise man does not leave the world of transcendent ideal transsituational paradigms of behaviour and thinking. But staying in the real world of experience and sense, he does not let any final certainty tie him which would restrict and exclude all the others. Therefore he acts without any effort and limitations; he is open to all possibilities. Such a life requires a disciplined self-upbringing which exceeds anything that could provide a mechanism of laws and order based upon ritual. In a Daoist-Buddhist type of culture ethics is opposed to personal self-affirmation. Along with that, the objective of ethical perfection based on a context of socially sanctioned and ritually codified virtues leads to paradoxical results.

At the same time extremes are common with the Buddhist (especially in its Zen variant) principle of the independent conscience. In full accordance with Buddha’s doctrine teaching that attachment to something in this world is the source of rotation of the wheel of Samsara, Lin Zee declares,

Dao adepts:

The extremes of Daoist escapism confirm the common rule that in traditional culture social activities are immanently related to the ethical sphere. At the stage of "dependence on things" this situation changed radically. The spheres of the social whole, self-defined in their own lines of development, began being structured and regulated on the bases of functional effectiveness. It is not the semantics of ethical conscience and ethically sanctioned norms that determine people’s behaviour as agents of social interactions in a depersonalized society, but the logic of the subject. There a person acts as a bearer of roles and functions set by a systematic, rationally regulated logic, "a spirit of restless disorders", free from internally obliging ideals. The concepts of "open society" most completely reflect the essence of liberal ideology, namely, that complex impersonal structures of coordination of individual actions are a consequence and condition for the freedom of individuals. But the triumph of these non-subjectively determined structures, of a soulless and cold formalism of the rules of behaviour of the agents of a market economics turn into relativism and finally into rejection of ethical ideas and moral bases of human relationships. When there are no absolute ethical norms, there is a mechanism of "an opposite selection": those most free from ethical restrictions are most successful life.

Presently it becomes clear that both the economic pragmatic models and those for setting up a social order on the basis of certain norms have been exhausted in terms both of culture and civilization. The issue of the ethical formation of a person is at the same time that of the actualization of the ethical humanistic bases (foundations and objectives) for a common whole. In this case a person as an ethical whole, whose morality a person can trust and in whose meaning contexts the ethical beliefs of a person can be confirmed, is truly a socio-political organism.

For ancient times a civil community is a field, not so much of private individuals, but of personal self-affirmation where political virtues subordinated to the discipline of the state also are a means of a free self-implementation. Therefore it is clear that the essence of a state is similar in its mature ontological foundation to the existence of an individual.

The ancient policy had a classical embodiment of responsibility, of attachment to the life of a social whole, of a social need for the person’s civil deeds to be acknowledged by his countrymen, for the civil virtues to be affirmed as the most meaningful values of a person. The issue of upbringing by means of which the Greeks wanted to strengthen and improve the state was a common topic of vigorous and inspirational debates between ancient philosophers, medical doctors and artists. Socrates and Plato undergo a radical inversion of cause-effect dependence as the state itself is a sequence of paideia which is impossible in a state that bears the shape of the human soul. That is, the state issues from a social system in which philosophy is implemented as a correct upbringing. The ideal state system is then embodied into a creative paideia structure of education.

Learning these lessons which transform and rectify a person’s soul, requires efforts of mind and heart. Philosophy is also mobilized to serve this sacred didactics.

In the East, as a rule, an ethical upbringing was an integral foundation, a common principle and objective of pedagogical efforts which penetrated the entire educational system. The peculiarities of the teaching phenomenon in the East also reflect the ideal of upbringing. The highest Teacher’s authority is a feature of almost all traditional cultures. The Indian holy doctrine, i.e. Vedas, was passed down through "holy teachers" (Brachmacharia) as the major mechanism of cultural reproduction and translation. The teacher passed to his student the knowledge of the sacred and auxiliary texts learned by heart and the ritual as a system of sacred behaviour, but the ethical birth of the student was the principal goal. This second birth was a cosmic event for it made it impossible for a traditional culture to perish, which would be similar to the death of the world.

The role of the narrators of religious-mythological stories making up the Kazakh epos is their fulfillment of the function of the ethical and social integration of the nation on the basis of common, non-clan, absolute ethical values. Baksy, kuyshy, zhurau both accumulate and pass from one generation to the other a living wisdom and ethical ideals in their creative activity. They personify this wisdom and high authority in the eyes of the common people and aristocracy, the poor and the rich, is based upon that.

Sufism, which has had significant impact upon the traditions of ethical upbringing, is not as much a religious-philosophical system as a means for bringing the structures of religious experience and systematic spiritual purification into one’s conscience. The aim of the way is immersion into spiritual center of the person and of truth, and the achievement of freedom of spirit through the actualization of internal religiousness. The founder of Sufism, like patriarchs of Zen-Buddhism and Russo and Tolstoy, tended not to teach in the Enlightment meaning of the word, but to direct one along the way of independent thinking and understanding of the ethical truth through the release of capabilities for the transformation of one’s own ego in common with everyone. At the same time for the theoretician of Islamic mysticism Abu Hamid al-Gazali, it was difficult to accept Sufism because it required obeying the teacher and doing mystic exercises without thinking. As creative freedom finally was brought into focus and met all the norms and requirements of official Islam.

In contemporary culture the process of directiing the mind to objective being was implemented by turning science into a direct productive force of the community and setting special objectives for education. Thus the identity of philosophy with paideia disintegrated to be substituted by an identity of science and education. Enlightenment philosophy accepted this identity as universal and as a model of integration of all the other spheres of culture – philosophy, religion, art - into the sphere of scientific education. This model was of a great success till a certain stage of the development of civilization.

A democratic-legal culture is a socially-historically developed form of acknowledgement of the ethical foundation of interpersonal relationships. At the same time, the commonly adopted norms of behaviour are separated from their personal meaning, for in the social practice of the masses a functional-pragmatic, cynical, utilitarian-selfish attitude prevails. The asymmetry of ethical self-reflection and a socially-oriented behaviour – this "dual accountancy" of an ethical self-understanding – is inevitable in the place where everything is solved except for the person himself and his free and ethically responsible choice.

An ethical foundation penetrates the symbols, values, customs, beliefs and legends of the nation, not in their naturalistic sense but as the forms and means of the ethical self-determination of a personality, its ideological beliefs and actions. The national cultural foundations, the actualization of its symbols, stories, traditions, folklore, monuments, convictions, etc. does not in some impersonal objective way solve the issue of what role the ethical norms will play in personal interrelations, in mass behaviour and public opinion, and in self-understanding and instinctive actions. Therefore the ethical values of the traditional culture and the institutes and symbols representing them play an "ambivalent" dual role: both as a way of external normative regulation of the socially adopted behaviour, codified in the public morals and customs, and as possibilities for personal meanings.

A person’s spiritual world is eternally rich and unlimited. The path of ethical self-improvement for a person is also the way of his ascent to some absolute values and their affirmation as life goals. In this way categorical imperatives of ethics transform into subjectively adopted and contentedly defined convictions, motives, values and norms of the person’s behaviour. A person should independently develop in himself his own individualized adaptability. But this process is quite opposite to the frame of mind of individualism and its antipode – an impersonal community. The task is to find in these certain conditions an optimal measure of mutual understanding of the bases of individual freedom, of self-understanding and of the values of the community. Therefore the principal issue for an ethical upbringing is that of affirmation of the existential-personal meaning of humanistic values.

The fact that philosophy and education were considered functionally was the sometimes deliberate background for the development of the strategy of modernization of the educational system of Kazakhstan. Under such an approach the quality, efficiency, short- and long-term programs of expansion of the educational reform were measured by an external scale, namely, the applicability of the educational system to the execution of "the social order". The real attitude should be quite the opposite: the orientation should be to a multifacetedly educated and an ethically developed personality as an objective of social development. This should be an unconditional strategic priority of education, which then promotes the execution of tactical objectives, namely, the adaptation of the educational system to the socio-economic situation and the pragmatics of market relationships.

Such a transformation of market relationships is not a specifically Kazakhstani feature, but a typical trait of the global crisis of pedagogical theory. The circle of issues of ethical upbringing with a philosophical-ideological meaning is driven by a revolution in the technological provisions of the educational process.

The teacher’s authority, whose charisma structures the mass of information in traditional forms of education, is disappearing in the virtual world: a tutor replaces a teacher. Therefore it is quite logical to conclude that a breakthrough must be achieved via creating a new information driven educational environment based on modern technologies.

Spiritual and ethical freedom are based upon autonomy, i.e. self-direction which is different from both autonomy as illegal anarchy, and from heteronomy as the following an externally prescribed law. A personality is ethically formed only when working at greater than personal objectives and tasks.

It is impossible to overcome a structural crisis of education in Kazakhstan without decisive steps to re-orient the entire educational system to realize both the scientific-technological achievements of modern civilization and the basic humanistic values of personal development. The solutions of this issue suggested by a contemporary scientific-pedagogical theory contain a contradiction which has not been overcome and most often not even realized. The obvious conflict of vectors of professional specialization and humanitarian culture is taken as justified by the essence of science, the knowledge originating from the same initial duality of the ethical-intellectual sphere. The idea of education in contemporary pedagogies is related to the logic of ascending a ladder of erudition. Hegel’s "Phenomenology of Spirit" is the perfect model of this paradigm.

In this paradigm academic rights and liberties, without which one cannot conceive science and education, are the most obvious form of institutionalization of autonomy of ethical-intellectual activity. At the same time, paraphrasing Weber’s and Burdie’s formula, we can sociologically define the contemporary educational system as a community claiming a monopoly of legitimate intellectual violence. That is Hegel’s strong claim "to reject interference from home-made reflection" and "to take upon ourselves the tension of entering science as "the world turned upside down" or "the world turned inside out" with regard to the natural understanding and its simple ethical norms .

Hegel’s educational model is practically true when not only scientific knowledge turns into an indirect productive force of the community, but also ethical-intellectual development turns into the ontological structure of sociality in the form, and according to the logic, of the self-alienation of personality.

But Hegel’s universality of the way of education is only a peculiarity of the scientific-theoretical culture of XVII-XIX centuries. Along with the Hegel’s model of scientific-educational strategies, a strategy under which education will become a universally-free and multifaceted development of the spiritual subjectivity of a person regardless of any previously set scale, and hence the development of the very ability for personal development has a right to be declared. Proceeding from this objective, the ways of understanding the specialized knowledge of certain scientific disciplines and the forms of aesthetical and ethical upbringing should be determined.

For Kazakhstan a common issue of shaping a personal whole meeting requirements and criteria of the new millennium acquires a special actuality since the country is critically absorbing the culture of both East and West, Europe and Asia. It lies at the juncture of the historical destinies of many peoples, is a poly-cultural, poly-confessional state with a powerful, stable and integrating nucleus of traditional Kazakh culture. In solving the global issues of the educational strategy for the new millennium, Kazakhstan is seeking and finding national educational models which along with the spirit of the time and at the same time would come with the mentality of the poly-cultural people of Kazakhstan. Foreign educational programs, pedagogical innovations and new know-how should be developed and integrated for a national educational model that absorbs the world’s experience and meets the world standards and norms. At the same time it must express the national character of the Kazakh nation, its cultural-historical uniqueness and its peculiarity born of the long-lasting Eurasian brotherhood.

Kazakhstan is oriented upon the provisions of the World Declaration on Education and the Convention on Children’s Rights, which decisively change the notion "basic education". While previously we meant first of all literacy and the acquisition of the basic knowledge, now a fundamental education means professional knowledge and teaching such human values as kindness, justice, love, non-violence, happiness, well-doing.

The above reflects the actuality and need for such a unique educational project as Self-Knowledge. It solves not only the global issues of a unilateral rationalism and Euro-centrism set upon the development of a mainly cognitive attitude to the world that emphasizes intellect and reason, but also the national issues of the formation of a peculiar Kazakhstani educational model, corresponding to the multi-cultural, poly-ethnic profile of the Kazakhstani people This model is capable of actualizing all the abilities and possibilities for the self-implementation of a personality by introducing the spiritual dimension . Only coming to know yourself will you know other people, the other cultures and the rest of the world.

The modern technocratic civilization which has lost its ethical guide lines can be saved from disaster only by a spiritual awakening of the person, understanding his initial attachment to the highest spiritual substance. Education is that key sphere of public effort which can turn the direction of world history, put an end to the unrestrained technological race, changing a person into one who dwells in virtual artificial communicative networks. This requires extraordinary efforts. The subject of self-knowledge relates to such types of educational projects, combining both the global impulse and at the same time the national Kazakhstani interest.

The tasks and objectives of the subject of Self-Knowledge:

- to encourage the change of a pedagogical paradigm in the Republic of Kazakhstan, to overcome the Euro-centrism and rationalism related to it, to remove the Euro-centric Marxist dogmas of materialism and atheism, and to re-orient it toward the dominant of spirituality;

- to implement the principle of integration of humanitarian and natural-scientific knowledge, focusing all the disciplines taught upon the person, that is, regrouping and re-designing curricula and syllabi, based upon the unconditional center that is the person (all knowledge being for a person and though a person);

- to direct to the syllabi at a contemporary understanding of the person, whose essence is "an inspired soul", an unconditional direct connection of a person with a spiritual substance and therefore with all the people;

- to encourage formation of the desired harmony between the person and the world, a profound understanding of spirituality, the value of nature, its divine origin and the responsibility of a person to God, both for his own destiny and for the destiny of all creatures living on the Earth;

- to shape a harmony of human qualities and virtues: intellectual: an ability to think independently and critically, to be curious, to carry out a creative search, to be able to set and solve issues, to create new theories and concepts, to be an educated specialist, to know the languages of the information community; social: the skill to listen and understand the other; to defend your position, to acknowledge the right for an opposite viewpoint and way of thinking; to be able to make decisions, realizing one’s social and civic responsibility; to find the ways and methods to solve conflicts, to be open for cooperation and partnership, to protect the democratic way of behaviour aimed at the introduction of democracy to all spheres of life, and, finally, to think of oneself as of a citizen of the Republic of Kazakhstan and at the same time – as of a citizen of the universe; and ethical as the most fundamental, basic and essential: the ability to look at the world with the eyes full of love, to reject violence and cruelty, to affirm the strategy of mercy and compassion, to lead personally with the nature and the social environment; to acquire a genuine happiness presupposing ethical perfection and well-doing;

- to cultivate in a personality the qualities especially required in a multi-polar modern world: a respect for differences, while preserving the unity and integrity of the global cultural discourse. The modern situation is characterized by decentralization of cultural, economic and social structures and codes, and the restoration of national cultural diversity. Self-Knowledge is aimed at encouraging profound attachment to the historical, national, native culture, for only one who respects his Mother will respect and value other people;

- to form a gender sensitivity and corresponding diversified social environment; a new gender self-understanding oriented at the difference and irreducibility of male and female in the overall human perception;

- while orienting at preservation of the differences (ethnic, feminine-masculine, age), to encourage understanding of the integrity of humankind based on ethical unity and following the common values of love and good.

The subject of Self-Knowledge in this variant is mainly oriented at psychological development, while the ideological, that is, philosophical foundations and principles remain unclear. Psychology as a science was formed in the framework of universal philosophical knowledge and builds its concepts in line with philosophical principles for understanding the world and human beings, that is, in line with ontology and philosophical anthropology. Being the theoretical self-consciousness of culture, philosophy clarifies the basic extreme grounds of the human being as regards the relationship "person – God – world". What is the world, whether it is mortal or immortal, whether it has been created or just exists, if it can be divided with no limit or has some limits to its division. What is a person, what is his origin and essence, life and death, soul and body, psychic and physical essences, spiritual or soulless? What do we know and what can’t we know about God: how do we do "theodicy" as the justification of God; if he is powerful and means good for everyone, then why is there evil in the world; can one logically prove the existence of God; what are the possibilities of a dialogue between God and a human being? The basic issues also include a cognitive attitude to the world (what is truth and is it perceivable); ethical (good and evil); aesthetic (beautiful and ugly); as well as common principles of the social world structure (ethical criteria for the organization of society, issues of power, wealth and poverty, of justice and democratic organization, etc.). Finally, the basic issues include also the field of axiology, the values having an objective-subjective, meaningful character: love and compassion, meaning and pre-destination of human life and human history, the issue of freedom and human happiness, non-violence and good behaviour. Philosophy is a doctrine of primary meanings, primary principles and therefore "a wise man knows everything, knowing nothing" (Aristotle).

In Soviet times there was in our country rule by the Marxist-Leninist philosophy prescribing materialism and atheism. Actually, it was a Euro-centric model eliminating the spiritual experience of the East, including that of the Kazakh traditional culture. Along with that, the continuous tough Euro-centrism ("Europe is a concentration of culture; all the other cultural worlds do not have their values and are inadequate") was complemented by a "class approach". For the proletariat and its adepts philosophical materialism was the most adequate ideology. According to the principles of dialectical and historical materialism, all the scientific disciplines were ordered, including psychology and pedagogy. Darwin’s, Sechenov’s and Pavlov’s theories contributed conceptually to the interpretation of the human psyche. All the textbooks in psychology reproduced "scientific" schemes, corresponding to Marxist ideology.

Since a new free Kazakh philosophy has been formed which has rejected the Marxist dogmas of materialism and atheism, acknowledgement of the essence of a person, his spiritual soul and the ethical foundation of society should be considered as determinant. The fatal Euro-centric and class approaches have been overcome and Kazakhstani philosophy turned, first of all, to the ethical sources of the Turk tradition. Having acquired some spiritual strength it began an open creative dialogue with the contemporary philosophical concepts of the East and West. But the psychological science of Kazakhstan failed "to make the switch", as did the philosophy which changed its philosophical credo. Psychology still tries to reproduce the matrices of materialism and atheism in understanding psychic, consciousness and human personality, considering them to be scientific, rational and convincing.

No doubt, it is difficult for psychology to say good-bye to what is dear to its heart for they so simply and convincingly "explain" what the psyche, consciousness, and brain are, though they do so without mentioning one small "detail", namely, what a soul and Spirit are, for if we turn to the ancient Greek etymology, psyche means soul. "Scientific" psychology describes the psychies as a sum of psychic conditions, losing the psyche itself, the soul, as an initial integral whole directly connected with the highest ethical reality. We need long and thorough work to "clean" Kazakhstani psychology from the weeds of materialism and its false scientific character and help it engage the contemporary philosophical theories, developed, first of all, by the Kazakhstani philosophy providing a new "non-materialistic" ontology, anthropology, epistemology and axiology.

The subject of Self-Knowledge, consequently, should proceed from a clear understanding of the world; of the meaning of a person; of what we learn and why; of what we affirm, cultivate, develop, improve and actualize. Certainly, we can understand "self-knowledge" in terms to the former materialistic psychology deprived of soul and an ethical basis. Then it will be a "pragmatic", utilitarian knowledge of one’s own character, habits, abilities and mood in order to stand out and affirm oneself in the socium and avoid conflicts, thereby achieving professional success and business partnerships. This is no doubt an important objective, but it is neither inspiring, nor sufficient. "Self-knowledge" can be described from the position of philosophy as an experience of spiritual ascent and an ethical activity. Through plunging into the inner world and internal purification, it releases from the stereotypes of trivial consciousness and comes to Being and Meaning, to the light and sky of spirituality.

Speaking of the necessity of transformation of the philosophical bases of psychology, we mean a profound transformation of pedagogy, that is, of the entire educational process. The change of philosophical paradigm entails a change in the pedagogical paradigm, profound re-consideration of the nature of education, its goal and objectives, still oriented upon the principles of philosophical materialism, believing that only they are scientific and correspond to the secular character of the state. Though the terms of "historical materialism" and "dialectical materialism" in the public mind are thought of as archaic, in education materialistic stereotypes and procedures are silently encouraged. We need to try to untangle this ball. If we are all still Marxists-Leninists, then, no doubt, materialism is our credo and banner. But we have already lived in a different socio-economic space, in a different epoch and a different state for over ten years, we feel and think differently, we profess different values, aspire to create the national model of a civil society, to enter as equals the civilized world community, the world of post-industrial culture and the post-modern challenge where on the Internet a hyper-reality is being formed and a person begins to find himself in a combination of information and communication where the ability of mutual understanding, spiritual content, new forms of unity and "non-violent synthesis" become essential. Can we enter this world with such obsolete ideological baggage?

External gestures and the proclamation of new educational know-how and innovations should not restrict education, pedagogy and psychology in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The biggest primary innovation should be applied: re-consideration of philosophical ideological positions, re-orientation from the philosophical materialism to a philosophy that acknowledges the priority of a spiritual essence. That is where we see a large-scaled global task for "Self-Knowledge" prescribing modern reference points for the entire educational process in the Republic of Kazakhstan. This cannot be understood by those brought up on Marxist dogmas who having rejected them orally, continue to practice them in their pedagogical activity. "Self-Knowledge" takes the first confident steps, requiring a radical break-up of educational structures and change in the teachers themselves. This means first of all the design of new educational programs and sets of textbooks in all subjects, including humanities, math and the natural sciences. For, according to the First Teacher of the East, al-Farabi, a virtuous city is a necessary component of the Universe, and to understand the principles of an ideal and happy community, one needs to know the principles and laws of the whole where this community operates.

Objectives and super-objectives set by "Self-Knowledge" cross the boundaries of a mere discipline thusfar based only on psychology. Self-knowledge is a real initiative in the ideological transformation of the educational process in the Republic of Kazakhstan, an interdisciplinary subject. But successfully to implement such a primary but complicated task it is necessary to develop new scientific programs in the field of philosophy: philosophy for children, psychology, pedagogies, cultural studies, gender disciplines, political science and natural science, social science. Only massive scientific research can provide a stable basis for the above paradigm of a free Kazakh philosophy and the psychology and pedagogies which re-consider their own foundations.

To see from an historical point of view the essence of the new philosophical paradigm and, accordingly, of the new pedagogical paradigm we must engage the key notions of East and West not with geographical but with ideological meaning, including a certain type of ontology and anthropology. In the East the human spirit enters into the depths of self-consciousness in order to become unified with the highest absolute essence. According to the great thinker of the East, Hodja Akhmed Yassavi, in the process of human activity related to evolutional spiritual improvement, "kemel nisan" (i.e. spiritual perfection) is being formed. In the west the spirit goes outside in order to set up its comfortable external world. In the East a person is characterized by an integral relation of "person-world", where a person thinks of himself as a live particle of the live Cosmos, reproducing in itself all its essential laws ("microcosm"). The experience of the East is based upon the feeling of unconditional unity of a person with all living things. Here "a plant, "an animal" and "a person" relate to each other in a mutually complementary way, being connected with each other in a great democracy of life. The paradigm of oriental education is determined by the domination of the ethical: the enlightenment and transformation of a person. The Indian tradition is connected with the holy apprenticeship: the way of the people is a translation of knowledge, the way of the Gods is a reproduction of the teacher’s personality. Education is seen as an ontological, world-creating process: personifying a person is the way to render the universe personal.

A person of the west, on the contrary, is characterized by a deformed and defective relation of "subject-object": nature becomes an object of action, consummation, use, and human superiority over external, and accordingly over the internal, nature becomes dominant. A person must "displace" (Freud) all the natural affections, impulses, desires to become the superior subject. This with having two sources –ancient Greek culture and the new European culture – forms a special type of a person, a special type of organization of social relationships, and a special type of reflective practice: instrumental rationality ("We live and die rationally and if someone rebels, the rebels’ profile acquires a scientific character").

Science as the positive knowledge required to understand the objective laws of nature and to be its superior is dominant in this culture: "Knowledge is a power". A human being loses the wholeness and integrity of his relationships and tends to develop primarily reason. Philosophy and psychology take on science-like shape and bring the psychic to consciousness in the limited form of clear consciousness, as the founder of the new-European science and philosophy which Descartes sought. Instinctive and super-conscious, transpersonal essences, and the conditions of sleep and madness are taken up by "scientific" psychology. In this paradigm a western type of education, completely meeting the major characteristics of the western cultural model is formed. Education becomes rational, positive, aimed at translation of knowledge, and memorization for the mind is a blank tablet ("tabula rasa"), a preparation for rational activity. The task of ethical enlightenment which was primary for a person of the East is moved to the margins of the educational process as an "addendum" or "addition".

Thus, in two historical types of human culture – eastern and western – two mutually related but not formed features of the phenomenon of education are accentuated: in the East enlightenment and ethical awakening; in the West enlightenment and transformation of social experience, the means of socialization, and the subjection of cultural codes and algorithms. Education as a complicated socio-cultural phenomenon includes both these aspects: enlightenment and education as two poles of one ellipse. In different cultures different poles are dominant .

Free Kazakhstani philosophy forms a new ontological strategy for meeting the challenges of the third millennium, whose leading idea is a constructive synthesis of the ideological types of the East and the West: to preserve the resources and achievements of western civilization, with its modern scientific and technological potential for restoring the ethical traditions lost by the West, to rehabilitate the ethical experience of the East with its integral relation of "person – world". We are speaking about the need for a radical transformation of the types of human culture and rationality in order for a person to be able to overcome the gigantic crisis of cultural foundations which have moved humanity to the edge of world catastrophe. A person forced to solve the global issue: "to be or not to be for the humankind?" realizes that western tradition, where the science is superior to the ethics and spirituality, makes science into an alienated, demonic power aimed against humankind. The new post-classic paradigm considers the principles of the more "friendly" eastern attitude to the environment according to which all the phenomena of the culture, including science, should be directed, first of all, by ethical criteria. A new type of personality is formed, integral and universal, overcoming the unilateral orientation of reason and intellect; the intuitive and transpersonal domains are being opened in the human psyche. Alternative models of rationality are being developed, including, first of all, repressed layers of experience, "semantics of the body", "mimetic" impulses that are intuitive, natural, enlightened by the Spirit. Therefore education, both continuing to preserve the intention of transferring knowledge and enlightening, describes its dominant task as the enlightenment, ethical growth and self-realization of the personality. Education now is understood not only as a cognitive category, but as the "ether" determining the entire life, behaviour and way of thinking of an individual, in an accurate form or image of the First. The soul of the East and the mind of the West should be synthesized in the person.

The new Kazakhstani philosophy, synthesizing the cultural-historical traditions of the East and the West, creates a model of national philosophy based on the peculiarities of Turk and Moslem cultures. The ontology and anthropology of the Kazakh steppe civilization are not similar either to the purely eastern (contemplative, self-analysis), or purely western (active self-implementation in the world) strategies. A nomad is characterized by active cooperation with the environment, while treating it in a careful way. Based on this, a new type of personality is formed that knows no disorder between the mind and heart (a reasonable heart and a conscientious mind). The national pedagogies of the Kazakhs actualize this principle of integrity, unity of soul and body, of the physical and psychic: not denying earthly cares (a nomad should provide himself with food and cannot "meditate") but activity that is permeated with the most meaningful and highest ethical settings and orientations. Therefore Kazakh ethnic pedagogies set the task as the integral formation of a person as a unity of body and soul. That is the valuable experience of Turk ontology, anthropology and pedagogy included in the free Kazakhstani philosophy as determining its principles of understanding the human personality.

In the previous Marxist tradition a personality was seen as a "combination, ensemble of social relationships", "an independent subject of activity and communication" (K. Marx), the "social quality" of an individual. There were tiring fruitless discussions on the correlation of the biological and social essences in a person. The Kazakhstan philosophy, following the principle of continuity and preserving the theoretical developments of a famous Kazakhstani school of dialectics, at the same time provided its own concept of a human being, namely, as a personality, while implementing itself in a social context ("involvement" is its important feature"), has a biological bases ("in a human being the nature realizes itself"), and also is determined by the super-natural, transcendental principle of the Spirit. The spiritual essence determines the personality, ascribing a special quality to the biological and social essences in a person. Personality is an active center that includes the Spirit inside the final spheres of its being as an individual concentration of the eternal Spirit. Complicity with the First is a sphere where meanings are born and the vector is directed from the highest spiritual reality to the social and biological essences in a human being, giving human qualities to its existence in a social community and to its biology.

We do not have the opportunity to describe in this context the anthropology of the Kazakhstani philosophy which sets as an objective to create an entire doctrine of a human being, including all his types and forms of knowledge: natural, scientific, humanitarian, religious, artistic, ethical. What we have said is enough for our ends. The Kazakhstani paradigm for pedagogy should be shaped according to the Kazakhstani philosophical anthropology: through all the spheres of human activity the Spirit should be a dominant; the spiritual should be embodied in the forms of the body and society, and in the forms of human culture. Though ‘the final argument of a person as a personality is its complicity with the divine transcendence", this is engaged in the body and involved in social activity, and the active construction of social relationships and structures. For existence is perceived as an activity and a more perfect existence as a more perfect activity, meeting the ethical criteria of personal development ("it is important what kind of person an individual becomes in the process of his or her activity").

The Kazakhstani pedagogies, preserving the impulse to educate and train professionally and to transfer accumulated knowledge, should switch to accent the ethical potential of a person. Technocratic educational models, equipped with the "advanced" pedagogical know-how, lose the person and do not meet the super-objectives of the planetary cosmic ideology of the new world epoch. They are more practical and effective only at first glance. Actually, it is the awakening of ethical tendencies that creates unique opportunities for the creative self-reliance of persons. Drawing from the bottomless spiritual spring, a human being is attached to the "root" of all the talents and abilities, becomes talented in its essence and, consequently, capable of mastering and improving various forms of activity, of being mobile and flexible, of entering the Internet and information networks, while preserving his or her uniqueness and individuality and not allowing oneself to be turned into a function of telecommunications. Kazakhstani educational discourse has as an objective the ideological transformation and calls for Self-Knowledge to reach this grand objective.

To repeat: education in its goal and the role it plays in the life of the community over many generations fulfills two interrelated and mutually complementary functions. The first is to comprehend the socio-cultural experience of the previous generations, the bases of philosophy, science, art and morals, and all the necessary knowledge that enables a person to grasp the forms, languages, codes and cultures, needed to enter the social world as an equal citizen. This vector related to socialization enables an individual to take his place in the social continuum, to decipher the social-cultural algorithms, to appreciate the experience of generations and the national traditions as background for becoming a true subject of socio-cultural creativity, for discovering one’s destiny and entering the professional sphere. The second vector of education is the key formation of a person, the awakening and growth of one’s internal spiritual potential, the realization of one’s relation to the highest spiritual reality, one’s spiritual self-determination in the process of interpersonal communication, and setting one’s life according to the highest values, ideals and meanings.

While historically the second vector centered on spirituality and humanity prevailed in the Eastern cultures, in the western tradition the first vector centered on pragmatics, success, vital results, professional knowledge, and science was primary. Presently, when a united planetary humanity and the world culture are being formed, there arises an immediate need for a correlation of these two vectors: the dominant is connected with the vector of spirituality and humanity, and in the course of the growth of spirituality there emerges hope of influencing this other vector, to inspire it, to transform "positive" knowledge focused on superiority into knowledge for the sake of salvation.

Education cannot be concentrated only on the internal, spiritual life of a human being. It should not be limited to learning "how to feed oneself," but should teach the basics of science and the skills for orientation in a complicated post-industrial society which requires good professional knowledge and an ability to quickly switch into other regimes and programs of activity. If education fails to take up this task, it will not be able to fulfill its social mission of translation of the socio-cultural experience and socialization of individuals. Spirituality, that is not realized in external forms of activity will be weak and passive. What is needed after having emphasized the growth of the spiritual essence in a person, is to inspire his social world, to bring spirituality into the ways and types of earthly being in order to enlighten both the natural and the social historical world. Positive sciences, modern know-how, communication and information networks, fantastic possibilities of genetic engineering intrude upon the mystery of life, the cloning of people, all these shocking scientific findings have to be supervised by the ethical instance. Only in this way will science and technics reveal their essence and become "the way to the truth of being". This idea can be confirmed by the creative activity of the great encyclopaedist of the East, Abu Nasr al-Farabi: he spoke of science and mind as its way to approach Allah – provided they are warmed by internal belief and correspond with ethical ideals. Therefore, self-knowledge, turning the entire educational process towards spirituality, opens new opportunities and horizons for the entire field of knowledge.

However, it is necessary to discuss an acute issue related to the implementation of socially significant, even urgent, programs. While the principle of the Spirit becomes a priority in understanding the person, how can this, which is unfamiliar to many people, be coordinated with the secular character of our state proclaimed in the first Article of the Constitution of the Republic? Doesn’t acknowledging "the principle of Spirit" contradict this Article, doesn’t it mean a "religious" character for the educational process? To answer these reasonable questions we shall consider the relation between the "spirituality" and "religiousness".

Spirituality as an unconditional attachment of a human being to the Absolute reality means acknowledging such reality, i.e. God. Certainly, a human being is unlimited and this can be potential – inclusion into the socio-cultural context, acquisition of immortality through the results of his activity, through creation of the products of culture, through implementation of social memory. History is the stage where the being of a person is prolonged. But there is an opportunity for a real, actual unlimitedness when an individual sets a direct link with the Absolute essence. This is an unthinkable paradox which only a human being can bear. Spirituality without attachment to God and divine grace loses its essential content. Some thinkers try to separate Spirituality from the Spirit and interpret it in the aspect of only potential unlimitedness: from their viewpoint, spirituality includes ethical, aesthetic, cognitive attitudes to the world and can be realized without the Spirit. But then one must ask: how can a human being be able to perceive and do good and beauty, follow the call of a virtue and truth, relate one’s life with the highest meaning?

But if one acknowledges an inseparable connection between the spirituality and religiousness, there arises the following reasonable question: can a person who thinks of himself as a non-believer become attached to spiritual values. In other words, how do we talk about spirituality or raise the issue of spirituality in a secular school? There is a certain phenomenon of a rather secular character which brings together spirituality and religiousness namely, culture. It is the culture that is the form of the Spirit for God has not finished creating the world but is continually creating it together with human beings in the historical forms of culture. A human being in one’s spiritual activity, struggles and efforts is the reality of God as the one unique Spirit is embodied in mortal human spirits. A human being can directly contact God, but can also perceive the light of spirituality through cooperative activity with God implemented in a culture. Note, it is culture that we mean, and not pseudo-culture and mass-culture, for which one might use the term of "civilization": the products of pseudo-culture which have lost the criteria of truth, goodness and beauty are willingly subordinate to non-artistic, market criteria.

Works of real culture, revealing its original meaning as "the cult of light" provide a "channel" through which culture enters to the secular school. Culture attaches to the system of ethical, aesthetic, meaningful values which traditionally are regarded as common values. As to their nature and origin, we find that the values or ideological universals represent "divine essences" (Balasaguni), that is, the commandments, imperatives, requirements set by God to the people. Therefore values are of a subjective-objective character. As a manifestation of the highest power, they are directed to every person, and as uniting the people they become "common". At the same time, for the voice of God to be heard, human hearts must open and accept these commandments as their own internally required maxims after which they become "values", determining the meaningful dominant, ideological human credo. Therefore, without accenting the priority of the religious experience, in a secular school one can concentrate on the experience of the culture as necessary for each child and representing "God’s essences" and the manifestation of God’s will.

The spiritual content of the world religions in secular schools can also be actualized through turning to meaningful realties. All the world religions, including those dominant in the Republic, Islam and Christianity, see the objective and the meaning of life in spiritual improvement, becoming-like-God, following the ethical principles of good, justice and love, teaching the values of non-violence and benevolence. While a synthesis of the world religions is impossible on the level of religious dogmatism, it is quite possible on the level of the meaningful universals that are ethical postulates. Spirituality, in its original meaning as an unconditional attachment to the Spirit, seems able to enter a secular Kazakhstani school through active attachment to the experience of the world culture of common values.

We cannot say that the school has not yet taken any certain and decisive steps in this regard. In literature, history classes, during the extracurricular activities we always spoke and are speaking about common values; teachers and parents talk continuously about the need to be honest, kind, fair, in other words, virtuous. But neither the "humanization" of all the subjects, nor "humanitarization", that is, an introduction of new humanitarian subjects bring the expected results, raising the level of virtuosity and spirituality of the children who learn these subjects. The reason for that is that the pedagogical paradigm, that is the conceptual foundations of the educational process remain unchanged, totally materialistic. While in the classes of literature the commandment of goodness and compassion is professed, in the biology classes they teach Darwin’s theory of evolution: one does not go with the other.

Materialism is based upon a western type rationalism where subjectivity so fitted completely into the framework of the national structures. This results in the implementation of a disciplinary educational model: the acquisition of amounts of knowledge, ascending by stages, to certified levels. Common values also come to be treated as "knowledge". So that to be virtuous means to know what a virtue is in the spirit of Socrates, one of the founders of European rationalism.

Only a change of paradigm – from materialism to the priority of the spiritual– will reveal that the human essence is not his mind, but rather an inspired soul. Then kindness and knowledge of kindness will not be identified. For the one who knows best the ethical commandments and categorical imperatives can be the most immoral and commit crimes against humanity. The new paradigm, first, reveals the context of all the subjects studied at school, which presently are "falling apart" and deprived of any internal linkage or integrating principle. Secondly, the priority of spirituality, as great Abay noted, opens opportunities for the awakening the internal powers of the soul, its internal work relating to the creation of the good and of humanity. Then knowledge, which is about the good turns out to be able to become a real, inevitable spiritual power of well-doing.

What are the principles, conceptual foundations of the subject of Self-Knowledge? These are not equal principles that can lined up one aside the other, but a common principle resulting in a number of important consequences. We have already talked about this principle above: a change of the entire pedagogical paradigm, reconsideration of ideological and methodological foundations, rejection of the ideology of materialism and the impudent schemes and reflective procedures of rationalism, and an uncompromising transfer to an ideology based upon the priority of spirituality, and thus a transformation of western type rationalism.

The change of paradigm - the global idea of Self-Knowledge – presupposes opening a new epoch in education in the Republic of Kazakhstan. This will be based on an ontology of the integral relationship of "person-world" that restores the wholeness of the human perception of the universe as a live divine environment inspiring awe, instead of the antithesis of "subject-object" where the environment is seen only from the point of view of use and consummation as something dead or alienated. The new ontology changes the model of human subjectivity: instead of a person whose psyche is limited to consciousness, to a combination of rational procedures, personality is formed as "an inspired soul" drawing from a limitless spiritual source and therefore not restricted by rational "schemes". All the voices of "I" should be heard in a personality that goes beyond the "ego": reasons of the mind and heart, intuition and conscious argumentation, and super-conscious "logic" and "mathematics" of love and compassion. This "versatile", "multi-storied", "multi-level personality" (Berdyaev) unlike a unilateral, rational subject, takes on all the colours of the world. Its identity is provided with a combination of ethical acts and is formed of the highest meaning. Pedagogy cannot remain in an outdated ideological space, but should be oriented towarda spiritual situation of the epoch and have as its objectives the education of a person and not only of a mind. The alienated rationalized form of knowledge is not related to the self-construction of a personality. Only a change of the type of rationality can turn the knowledge into a way of being, and constitute the spiritual renewal of a personality.

The following conclusions can be made on the basis of this principle of Self-Knowledge:

- A constructive open dialogue, partnership and co-creative work of the eastern and western cultural-historical traditions uniting the spiritual experience of the East and civilized resources of the West. The completion of self-analysis, meditation and spiritual practices internally by an active life and forms of social self-affirmation; and of internal perfection by forms of civil life and democratic structures, civilized models and types of human relationships. The personal zone is located between the internal and the public life. Personality is an inner world that needs to be implemented externally. Without an inner life the external one becomes empty and meaningless, while without external involvement in social action, a dialectics of subject and object, the inner life might come to madness. Pedagogies developing the internal spiritual potential of a personality, should at the same time form the activities, abilities, skills and knowledge which enable one to be a literate specialist, creatively thinking, capable of a rapid shift of fields, or change of algorithms of activity creative of ethical of forms being with others, to manifesting compassion and love in day-to-day situations, enlightening by inspiring earthly life;

- Self-Knowledge is oriented at consolidating the national Kazakhstani idea of Eurasianism. Kazakhstan is a geopolitically unique country, whose territory is a crossroads of East and West, North and South, Europe and Asia. Self-Knowledge is based upon the principle of Eurasianism being self-affirmed in a political-ethnic, poly-cultural, poly-confessional Kazakhstan where spiritual consent, mutual understanding, consolidation and political stability are dominating values and priorities at the level of state politics;

- Kazakh traditional culture, being dominant in the dialogue of cultural traditions of the peoples of Kazakhstan, is a basis for the Eurasian community. Self-Knowledge shares the point of view that the ontology of the Turk culture embodies the unity of the active exploration of the world and its careful preservation. As a result an integral ideology is formed by which a person is oriented at communication and mutual understanding, creation of good and beauty, consistent with the Universum and other people. This is the traditional Turk ideology that contains the reality of unification of the spiritual and earthly, soul and body. The psychic and the physical are understood as two sides of one reality, thereby overcoming the dualism of soul and body. According to Kazakh ideology, the spiritual powers of a person should be developed and later embodied in the earthly spheres of being, enlightening and inspiring them. A person should not stop at the limits of the earthly, but plunge completely into the internal, spiritual world. Self-Knowledge, led by these ideas of the Kazakh national pedagogy, encourages creation of a national educational model based on the unity of soul and body, the internal and the external, the individual and the social. Study of the experience of the countries advanced with regard to the ethical improvement of personality is accompanied by a process of thorough adaptation of foreign material to the mentality of the Kazakh nation, whose spiritual traditions are expressed in its rich treasury of folklore, heroic epics, magic legends, dastan, shezhire, fairy tales, sayings and proverbs.

Self-Knowledge is to implement the philosophical-ethical call of the great Abay, "Be a human!", and to make the integrity or wholeness of the entire educational process a pedagogical reality, to unite natural-scientific and humanitarian knowledge in line with the principle according to which all the sciences are sciences of human being. In the context of "person – God – world" every discipline finds its place and acquires a meaning in the whole system. Such wholeness is then not an arithmetic sum of parts, but something greater for wholeness is not only a matter of content but also of form: Self-Knowledge is aimed at the continuity of the entire educational process, including all ages and stages of life – starting with kindergarten, school and including institutions of higher education. All these stages are interrelated, penetrated with an idea of the growth of the ethical potential of a personality, with self-knowledge as self-understanding and mutual understanding of a person and God, a person and another person, different epochs and peoples, cultures, ethnoses, confessions, a child and adult, male and female;

- A constructive synthesis of the cultural-historical traditions of East and West as a principle of implementation of Self-Knowledge presupposes an especially important issue in the context of globalization, namely, how the values of a liberal-democratic society with the impact of individualism are correlated with the values of the traditional culture of people whose mentality is determined by a phenomenon such as gender? How, while studying science do we live in a contemporary informational space that is a crossroads of flows of communication which realize the norms and categories of liberal democracy, and at the same time remain a representative of our own national culture with our unique national way of the world? From the very first steps, starting with pre-school, Self-Knowledge increases love of the national sources and at the same time teaches one to find the way in a modern multi-polar world. It is important to realize theoretically that western values coming through the mass media should be filtered through an ethical control so that pseudo-values can be sorted out: the cult of violence, sexual anarchy, aggressiveness, and cruelty. The genuine values of liberalism: respect of human rights, pluralism of opinions, a democratic style of thinking and behaving, acknowledgement of the right of other people and cultures to have their own position have nothing in common with these "standards" of anti-humanity. In such a variant western values draw closer to the values of the Kazakh traditional culture which do not remain unchanged, either, but become involved with the process of modernization. Traditions are alive only because they do not remain unchanged.

It is the common content of western values and the traditional Kazakh ideology that sets the conditions for their dialogue and mutual understanding, while the difference in their experience of values is essential and principal. This statement can be illustrated by the example of a common value such as happiness. In the liberal western world happiness is seen first of all as "a successful life", corresponding to internal personal impulses and needs and achieved in "an honest struggle" against the circumstances. In the traditional culture happiness is one of the crucial values as well. But, as already mentioned, it is understood as "kut", "life force", "wealth", "abundance", and "destiny". Self-Knowledge is to reveal in every child the talent of understanding and love of his culture and at the same time to encourage his entrance as a peer into the contemporary civilized democratic world.

- A continuous development of the gender idea in all Self-Knowledge syllabi is crucial sequence to the new pedagogical paradigm. So far the educational space of Kazakhstan could be called indifferent to gender. Textbooks and aids did not accentuate the addressee – boys or girls—and teachers taught the "class" without differences as to gender. But actually the teaching material "was made up" according to masculine matrices and the learning process of the dominant male. Formation of the democratic, plural, tolerant world put on the agenda the need to restore the lost equality in the culture of the masculine and feminine principles. It was discovered that restriction of the feminine damages the masculine as well, since the human essence is united and is represented in two basic forms which are different and non-integral, but at the same time interconnected and mutually complementary. The differences are not hierarchical and constitute a harmony as a united spiritual whole. Democratically advanced countries set themselves the task of overcoming gender inequality to form a new gender self-consciousness and model of behaviour.

Self-knowledge fulfills a gender approach starting from kindergarten: all the themes, programs and training include a gender aspect, are aimed at enlivening gender sensitivity, and the realization of genderistics the interconnectedness of all the features of an individual – gender, socio-economic, age, and ethnicity. Here, the broader goal of introduction of gender indicators is to actualize the feminine ideology and feminine system of values, restoration of harmony - of the feminine and the masculine, overcoming gender discrimination at all the levels, including the intuitive, and ascribing to socialization a gender dimension. This meets contemporary needs as to a variety of life practices, national images, and feminine and masculine outlooks in their unity and differences;

- Self-knowledge also introduces "an interdisciplinary approach", both integrating all the subjects through the context of "person – God – world" and connecting the humanitarian knowledge (philosophy, psychology, religion, cultural science, social science, political science, history, literature) with knowledge of nature (biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy). The person principle is introduced when all the subjects are interconnected. This projects the internal world upon the external one and vice versa so that all the events of world history become events of one’s own biography.

Kazakhstan is carrying out an intensive effort under the guidance of the Republic’s Ministry of Education and Science to carry out pedagogical experiments in schools and institutions of higher learning to develop the subject of Self-Knowledge. The program on the Ethical bases of the community discusses first the meaningful ethical issues – the philosophical-religious issues of good and evil, truth and lie, the beautiful and ugly, soul and body, feminine and masculine. The ethical sphere enlightens.

-Economic life: the origin and essence of money; turning money into capital; contemporary forms of capital; the poor and the rich; ethical essence of wealth; philosophy of business and wealth; a rich person and a rich country, etc.;

-Political life: power and its positive meaning; macro and micro levels of power; power as inequality of forces and abilities; the issue of equality and justice – the justice of inequality along with the inequality of abilities; human rights – obligations of the state and vice versa; teaching democracy; Kazakhstan as a post-Communist society in transit and the establishment of the presidential form of rule); and

- Inter-ethnic relations: what is a nation, ethnos and nation; the national character and national dignity; interethnic consent as a crucial value of the social being in the Republic of Kazakhstan; the state Kazakh language and the need for every citizen of the Republic to learn it; my future and that of my country. A special topic is the art of communication; differences between functional and profound communication; profound communication as a means of jointly finding God, being as a dialogue between a person and God.

In the section on "Values of a Liberal Democracy and of a Traditional Society: Dialogue or Conflict?" schoolchildren are encouraged to reflect upon whether the modern world can be unilateral and uni-faceted or absorb all colours and sounds? What will happen if musicians have but one sound and the artists but one paint? However, if we preserve the national cultural differences, all the colours and shades, how do we achieve their harmony and avoid dissonance? How can democratic principles be applied in a national form? This section must discuss in detail the character of mass culture, its strengths and weaknesses, the sources of its anti-artistic, anti-humanistic setting as it relates to commercial criteria. The students learn to be strict critics of the consumer culture which has filled in the informational space. At the same time they try to promote the ethical values of traditional culture, through such presentations as "Kazakh batyrs are among us", "My Granddad and myself in Turkestan", "A trip to Al-Farabi’s virtuous city", "Success in business and Shakarim’s ‘conscientious mind, "Do we hear Abay’s call?", "Kyz-Zhibek’s song", "The Kazakh folklore world".

A large part of the program is devoted to the discussion of the topic "Democracy and myself". The idea of democracy being something more than a system of political structures is dominant here. This is a democratic way of thinking (to think independently and to let others think), a democratic way of life and behaviour (to daily affirm human rights and liberties along with the duties and obligations, encouraging democratic forms of interpersonal relationships). Democracy is also an acknowledgement of the unique national culture and its authority in the dialogue of cultural traditions; it is oriented at the cultural-historical, socially constructed differences of the feminine and masculine, while setting them in harmony. Democracy is a skill to happily and independently live in the united house of planetary humankind. A democratic taste is developed with the help of interactive methodologies. For example, senior students expound on the principles of democracy – sovereignty of the people, rule of the majority, rights of the minority, social, economical and political pluralism, values of tolerance, cooperation and compromise, the supremacy of the law, division of powers, etc., after which everyone chooses one principle and writes an essay which is read and discussed in class.

The topic of all stages of Self-Knowledge– gender relationships – in the course on the ethical basics of society. At this age interest in feminine and masculine relationships are important: a man and a woman in the history of the world culture, world religions on a woman’s role, love, sexuality, family, gender models, ideals, types of behaviour, new sexual orientations in the modern world. Self-Knowledge presupposes gender-trainings in the course of which all those involved answer their own questions of their own gender style of thinking, feelings, conduct; moreover, the conditions of the modeled situations of a psycho-drama they experience an internal transformation of gender feeling and come to a change of gender settings.

The theme of globalization and dialogue of cultures and civilizations is the final one in the course where the burning issues of the contemporary age are discussed: how can we preserve the uniqueness of the national cultures, their own "identity" and, consequently, the uniqueness of each of us in the age of the integration of markets, finances, economic structures, in the age of informational know-how and Internet? How in learning to work with the computer and finding ourselves on the routes of the Seventh Continent, can we not become a function of networks and telecommunications and preserve a living link with God? Is Kurmangazy’s kuy going to play for the world of the future?

The new pedagogical paradigm on the whole changes the relationship of "teacher-student", in ways that entail a different mutual impact of the subjects of teaching and ethical upbringing. In the European school there is a certain model of the relationship of "teacher-student" corresponding to the type of western rationality and set for mastering the "positive" sciences. A teacher having knowledge should "teach", providing it in such a way that a student accepts, understand and memorizes it: his mind, intellect, soul is a flexible material, wax which should be modeled according to the templates of the discipline. In the framework of this rationalistic scheme of interpersonal relationships of "teacher-student" there arose some "points of growth", certain pedagogical innovations: pedagogies of cooperation, personally-oriented pedagogies which tried to affirm the thesis of a child being a self-developing person, worthy of respect and cooperation, partnership.

But a genuine transformation of interpersonal relationships of "teacher-student" presupposes a change of the pedagogical paradigm, re-orientation of education with the priority on the ethical, principally on new understanding of personality as an inspired soul and a human community as the one containing the bases of the ethical. Then there will be no need to prove that "a child is a human being, too" for the priority of ethics means acknowledgement of each human age. Western culture and, consequently, its pedagogies have been mainly based upon Aristotle’s thesis which stated that children do not have a whole human essence, thinking them to "be experiencing something of the animal satisfaction of a sleeping dog". Piaget, a representative of a different cultural epoch and creator of the genetic epistemology, researched the stages of formation of the categorical style of thinking and thought that a child moves along the ladder to "right" grown-up thinking. The opposite approach in the framework of the European tradition originates from Russo’s theory stating that children are whole, reasonable human beings at each stage of their individual human development. As this includes self-value some educators started to provide a child with the primary role.

According to the Self-Knowledge concept, in the dialogue of "child-adult" there are no priorities or leadership. It is not only that a child is a person worthy of respect, but a teacher is as well a personality continuously overcoming the boundaries and limits of his or her own personal upbringing. A child and an adult both need each other. An adult is more knowledgeable, informed, and erudite, representing the historical experience of generations and implementing a cultural-historical function of socialization. But a child is more "metaphysical" and spiritual, his soul is open to God, to the super-natural and transcendent, his contact with being is more direct and intimate, for his intellect has not yet been brought down to earth by daily cares and troubles. In the field of "metaphysical" questioning children have an obvious advantage. "What do we live for?", "Why is there suffering and evil in the world?",. "Where does Granny live after death?", "Where was I before I was born?", "Does time have a beginning?", "Who created God?", "What was before God created the world?". Children both ask global questions and provide answers worthy of the greatest minds of the humanity, guessing the way Plato, Kant, Hegel, Abay, Shakarim thought, which we know nothing about. Their closeness to the spiritual source makes them prophets, little wise men and women.

The course of Self-Knowledge does not declare or prove the thesis that the relationship of "teacher-student" is ethical in essence as is presupposed by the concept itself. Ethical essences begin a profound open dialogue whose aim is self-knowledge for both the student and especially the teacher, without which ethical contact – through God – will not take place. Certainly, we are also talking about the fact that a child ascends the ladder of knowledge with the teacher’s help (otherwise, why would we need the school at all?), but this knowledge is of a special type. That is, the knowledge is not alienated, abstract, turned into a means, but knowledge which becomes a means of the personal and ethical self-realization of both the teacher and the student.

No doubt, this knowledge includes development of intellect and mind, but also an awakening of the heart, training of feelings, intuition, and spiritual enlightenment. With the teacher the dialogue produces ways of acquiring such integral knowledge, i.e. the students come to the fundamental truths themselves, encouraged by the question-answer dialectics – their soul seems to "recall" the divine images they used to contemplate. Producing knowledge presupposes that a dialogue is a joint implementation of certain ethical acts, not limited to reflective intellectual procedures. A dialogue in Self-Knowledge is not limited by a rational layer of the psyche, by cooperative discussion of issues, and the search of possible ways to solve paradoxes, but has an ethical background, and is a dialogue of ethical essences in the same spiritual field.

Existential, profound, spiritual in its basics, such a dialogue is not limited to an exchange of opinions or their summation. What is revealed is content the communicators did not know before they begin the dialogue. It is their ethical growth and self-transformation in the cooperative ethical "conversation" that makes the voice of God more audible.

In the concept of Self-Knowledge the figure of a teacher, therefore, becomes extremely important. No doubt only a highly educated, professionally literate, civilly responsible person can teach such a course, but that is not enough. Teachers should be ready to grow spiritually themselves with the help of a child. They should acknowledge a personality not only in a child, but in themselves as well. Otherwise it will be impossible to fulfill the spiritual, and not only the reflective acts. This is the cooperative spiritual activity presupposed by Self-Knowledge – the course aimed at the spiritual growth of both the student and the teacher as interconnected, which cannot be done in a unilateral manner.

Success of self-knowledge depends upon whether we shall be able to find and train such teacher-partners, communicators and comrades who have understood the need to change the pedagogical paradigm: a clear realization of the fact that we want to form a spiritually enlightened human personality who has revealed the image of God in itself and at the same time affirming the ethical ground in a creative transformation of social and historio-cultural forms. But this means that those who encourages and opens the "eyes of the soul" should be sighted themselves. Training teachers at special workshops is only one of the steps required, but is not sufficient. These workshops should not be attended haphazardly by people far from the requirements of Self-Knowledge and formed by traditional didactic methods. Rather the participants should be teacher-innovators who have long been teaching innovative programs in the spiritual upbringing of a child and who need qualified help for the coordination of their activities and to acquire a rich experience of the world centers of the spiritual enlightenment of a person. These are the teachers-innovators who can be a basis for the successful implementation of Self-Knowledge and its effective promotion at all the levels of the educational process.

We are talking about both a radical change of the relationship "teacher-student" and the establishment of an educational unit which will be ethically integral, representing a peculiar model of human community built on the principles of justice and love. The spiritual link between a teacher and a student enables it to model human relationships that meet the criteria of spirituality. We can point out three main types of relationships in a class: obvious domination by the teacher’s authority, a totalitarian repressive regime; a competitive style when one wins at the expense of the other; and finally, a cooperative spiritual activity presupposing that there are no winners and losers where one wins only with the other’s victory. This is the trustful, good, spiritual atmosphere that Self-Knowledge creates, where everyone boosts the success of the other as a condition for his own ethical growth. The relationship of "teacher-student" acquires the primary meaning, revealing a great potential for spiritual growth.

It is instructive that Self-Knowledge introduces something that everyone has always been talking about: involvement of parents, relatives, and neighbors, friends or, as now is commonly said, community in the cooperative process of ethical growth, because the ethical enlightenment of a child presupposes both the ethical growth of a child and change of the parents. From the very first steps Self-Knowledge turns toward the parents not letting them remain passive observers, confident that the school is primarily responsible for a child’s fate. Think and define what is good and evil – that is the question to ask a child and strongly recommend: first of all, talk to your parents, find sayings and proverbs in this regard, recall the fairy-tale characters, compare the rules of behaviour of a good person, ask for opinions of your parents and friends. Almost all the tasks — difficult, but exciting — are aimed at overcoming barriers and starting a dialogue-polylogue of the "third sector" in joint classes with and for parents.

So in this regard Self-Knowledge extends the framework of a learning institution. Adults do not just help a child, but also think about the eternal issues; they break through a thick veil of routine to a pure light of spirituality. The unity of three – parent-student-teacher, essential for every school—becomes a reality in a spiritual kinship, when invisible, but strong ties stretch across and a co-being of ethical essences is created, without regard to age, social differences, or contrasts of the feminine and masculine.

Self-knowledge actualizes the integral human being in this full diversity of its psychic conditions and manifestations – intellect, feeling, heart, passion, intuition, consciousness, intuition—whose origins are in the soul as bearer of the unlimited Spirit in a body. Thus, methods and methodologies are determined by the integrity and orientation of the whole human personality, essentially defined as "an inspired soul." It is not merely a transfer of knowledge, nor even their joint product that presupposes the creative initiative of a child, but, moreover, a joint implementation of spiritual acts, i.e., a dialogue with each other through a dialogue with God.

Self-knowledge mainly uses interactive methodologies, making it possible to involve the students in the process of studies, to overcome their inertness, passivity and indifference, and to raise their curiosity and cognitive interest. Interactive methodologies are applied today in many educational programs since there is no doubt that they enable independent, critical thinking with a child, his skill to look at the object from different points of view, while protecting his or her own viewpoint, realizing the right to choice and decision, and acknowledging the right of the other to an opposite opinion. Intellectual virtues in this case become social and ethical qualities, much required in a modern multi-polar world; it is not only tolerance as a minimum human relationship, but also respect, trust, acceptance of different opinions, a cultural tradition, a national way of life, or a feminine system of values.

The interactive methods not only encourage activation of intellectual or cognitive abilities but help to transfer the accent to the cooperative activity of students and boost the development of their skills and abilities for cooperative work – in pairs, groups, and class. This develops their communicative capabilities, openness, attachment, and social activity, and prepares to enter the interconnected social world.

The interactive methods in Self-knowledge fulfill a special task: to set up a spiritual link with each other and thanks to that to hear the God’s voice; to be filled with internal light, joy, and limitless gratitude; to see the surrounding world, ourselves and other people with new eyes; to be rid of the load of trivial daily cares and problems; and to feel the warmth of the love spread by God.

The profound existential dialogue can be considered a basis for the interactive methods of Self-knowledge. The European tradition is aware of the Socratic dialogue aimed at the intellectual search for the truth. "I know that I know nothing" – acknowledgement of one’s own ignorance is a transfer from a non-philosophical trivial level of consciousness where a person is convinced of having knowledge, to the philosophical one where the search for the truth begins in a process of dialogue. Self-knowledge switches on the method of the Socratic dialogue, but notably changes it so that it is not a dialogue of minds or intellects, but of spiritual essences where God is present helping those who are on their way to the spiritual source.

Therefore a dialogue is a "search for the truth", but the truth is understood not so much in intellectual terms as in the framework of a spiritual dialogue of person and God. Along with that Self-knowledge does not exclude the cognitive, gnoseological, logical aspects; it does not absolutize the intellect, but sees it according to the Kazakh tradition as a "conscientious mind" (Abay). Philosophical understanding of the world and person, approaches, concepts, issues, hypotheses, philosophical paradoxes, aporias, dichotomies, puzzles, stories, fairy tales, aphorisms – Self-Knowledge includes all this rich material which enables one to expand horizons, and to problematize something that seems to go without saying. Turning back to the national traditions, to the Turk, Kazakh cultural inheritance, the amazing wealth of Kazakh wisdom in folklore (100 volumes), mythology, heroic epos, magic fairy tales is especially vital; this is the material which enables one to feel the unique flavour of the eastern sense of life.

Thus, self-knowledge does not take the western purely Socratic dialogue as the context of meaning. First, this dialogue has a rational character, activating the thinking efforts of the communicators, Second, by revealing difference and contradictions the dialogue aspires the solution of the contradictions in syntheses where the peculiarity of the positions is extinguished in their similarity, that is, the process of the dialogue demonstrates a totalitarian impulse of repressing differences (national cultures, confessions, individualities, the feminine and masculine).

The profound dialogue of self-knowledge in this regard contrasts to that of Socrates. First, it is not the purely rationalistic and intellectual that provides the basis for entering the conversation, but an invisible, thin, not the most stable spiritual connection between the communicators requiring the integral involvement of all the psychic phenomena of a person: intellect, heart, passion, feeling, will which are implement the original wholeness of the inspired soul. Profound dialogue is possible because of a common spiritual tie through, and thanks to which, God links all the souls.

Second, the differences, oppositions and positions revealed are not organized according to a principle of repression, losing difference in synthesis. The differences – which are very important for a contemporary democratic way of the planetary humankind – are preserved and, moreover, become even more outstanding, in the common ethical context of free dialogue. So, the differences turn into a net of equal relationships, beyond hierarchy, selection or superiority: no single culture or national image of the world is superior to the others, so that the masculine essence ceases to dominate the feminine, the adult’s over the child, the West over the East, Europe over Asia. Differences are not assimilated, but thanks to the ethical basis the unity is preserved, opening the way for mutual consent and understanding. The unity of the differences is endowed with the individuality and diversity of God’s acts of love. In the profound dialogue of Self-Knowledge, as the context for integrating all, the interactive methodologies acquire a different meaning than in the traditional approach.

In pre-school and primary classes Self-knowledge actively involved dialogue – with God, with other people, with oneself – through folkloric materials, fairy tales of the peoples of the world, stories and epics of the Kazakh people. The work with the folklore material varies and is determined by the topic being studied: one can analyze fairy tales, re-invent them or make up a different ending (individually, in groups or in class); one can compose the fairy tales "vice versa" (like "Cat wearing boots" where it is not the cat that is active, but the master himself); one can create series of fairy tales whose characters happen to be in different extreme situations, requiring the children’s help. Fairy tales can be not only interpreted, but staged in different ways, changing their direction, offering a number of variants, cooperatively finding the optimal solution.

At these stages Self-knowledge broadly works out the solution of ethical issues – discussion and staging of problem situations taken from the history of culture, science and, more importantly, from the child’s daily routine. (For example, a boy’s Mother fell ill and he has no money for medicine. He addresses his request to a chemist. The latter says no. What should he do? What would you do? – asking this you pay attention to different alternatives of the reply from boys and girls).

We also model the situations creating the conditions of ethical behaviour – beyond external determination by social encouragement or punishment: a person under the gaze of God. For example, the famous image of "Gig’s ring" which makes one invisible. In this situation we find out if he will stick to the ethical commandments whatever the external causes: invisible to everyone he is visible to God.

The method of definitions is widely applied, "What is good? Evil? Love? Hatred?" with the following suggestion to transfer the definitions into a visual image, to visualize the common values in their artistic transformations. The interactive methodologies of Self-Knowledge also include explanations of sayings, proverbs, aphorisms, making up a cooperative "Dictionary of Values" which includes the definitions made by the great people as well as proverbs and sayings, and definitions made by the children themselves, their parents, friends, comrades.

In the high school and in a university the above methodologies are preserved, but such steps as discussions, "round tables", debates, social and psychic dramas, essays, compositions and presentation of legends are used. For example, for debates the methodology has been designed by the National Debate Center where two teams prove opposite theses. By proving a point of view they do not share, the debaters learn to understand that other life positions and ideological postulates are possible and should be accepted since we live in a multi-cultural world, in poly-ethnic Kazakhstan.

The interactive methodologies of Self-knowledge are being actively extended and renewed while the original conditions are preserved: they fit the context of spiritual interaction between teacher and student through the assistance and cooperation of God.

Being an interdisciplinary, integrative course, Self-knowledge cannot be satisfied with a traditional textbook. Since the supreme task is self-understanding through mutual understanding and beginning a dialogue with God, Self-knowledge uses a peculiar set of textbooks: a workbook – a diary for a preschool student, student where various tasks, tests, questionnaires encourage active internal spiritual work (these assignments are considered individual, not subject to control by a teacher and can be done together with parents, relatives, friends); a reader for every stage of the learning process which includes the literature, ethical, folklore, philosophical material: fairy tales, folklore, stories, philosophical essays, religious commandments; and methodical aids for the teachers with necessary recommendations, plans and class plans. Self-knowledge does not accept a textbook in the original sense.

However, it is planned to complete the above set with a cycle of publications for children on relevant topics. Aspiring to encourage internal activity, the course at the same time proceeds from the principle, according to which the condition for self-understanding is mutual understanding. Consequently, it is necessary to involve the cultural-historical, ethical experience of humankind and, in particular, the invaluable experience of Kazakh traditional culture. Therefore we can add the following textbooks here: Books for children and parents, My family and myself (pre-school), Ethics for children (primary school), My mind, character and will (for Grades 5-6), Ethical basics of society: mutual understanding and consent (for Grades 9-10-11). The course of Self-knowledge for institutions of higher learning includes, except for the above, the following books: Conversations with Socrates, Buddha and humankind, Mohammed among us, Christ and the Sermon on the Mount, Abay’s ethical commandments, Shakarim and the conscientious mind of humanity.

For the implementation of the concept of Self-knowledge, the ideological and methodological issues of the innovative course of Self-Knowledge must encourage the change of the educational paradigm in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Hence they should be scientifically grounded, tested and assured, for which end we need a working, coordinated interdisciplinary group, including scientists (psychologists, philosophers, culture scientists, sociologists, political scientists) and the immediate agents in education (tutors, teachers, educators). The groups should also include officials from relevant ministries and departments.

An important condition for the implementation of such a global project of Self-knowledge, transforming the paradigm of education, requires a thorough system of re-orientation of public opinion, mainly, through mass media. Most parents in the present complicated socio-economical situation of the Kazakhstani society tend to see education as fulfilling a limited task in regard to their children: to teach them a specialty which would enable them in the future to "feed themselves", to be well-off and well-to-do. Therefore they do not want to pay for subjects which seem to be empty, distracting from their main goal in life, i.e., subjects which teach human well-being and the values of good and evil. We need to try to change this orientation by convincing the parents of the fact that in the contemporary poly-variative democratic world there is no "good specialist" without "a good person", educated in the ethical sense of the word. This is the literacy that will enable their children to enter the professional world of the XXI century with dignity, to be a success without losing human face, to find love, concord, happiness, mutual understanding of the masculine and feminine essences, spiritual peace, and harmony of all the spiritual forces. Without such a harmony, love and concord, no wealth of the world, no super profits and income will make a person happy. It seems reasonable to open a TV-channel supported by the state, "Light of Spirituality," devoted to love, life, wealth, happiness in their spiritual aspect.

We should think carefully over the effective steps to be taken smoothly to introduce the subject of self-knowledge into the national curriculum of Kazakhstan and other countries worldwide so that national educational politics is switched to the system of national ethical values related to common values.

The idea of freedom born in the soul of a nomad, just like the real acquisition of sovereignty by the Kazakh nation, has gone a long way and has a long history. On this way the fates of people and entire nations have intersected and the historic crossroads of their destinies, cultures and actions have frequently been crucial. Such was the transition of Kazakhstan to democratic formations, when in most recent history began - the history of acquisition of real freedom and the implementation of the long-standing dream of the Kazakh nation for freedom.

This period of the national history of the formation of a democratic base, measuring a bit longer than a decade, required and will still require all the creative potential available within the Kazakh society wonder successfully to come to life. To a considerable extent this concerns the involvement of the spiritual potential of the past into the creative activity of the present, for it is impossible to build a stable foundation for the future not based on the values discovered in the past but highly relevant to the present.

The history of Soviet society has already taught us a tragic lesson where there was no past, where we were trying to build a society, having left our national culture, our spiritual and moral values in the margins of history and forgotten about them as unnecessary in our movement "ahead – to a better future". The very idea of building the new via deleting the old is a sick idea, presupposing failures and collapses in one’s own self, for annihilation always blocks the way to the future. It is really sad as well as symptomatic, that the mankurtism phenomenon described by Ch. Aitmatov has become characteristic of the Soviet Kazakhstan. I dare to hope that it will remain in that past history of our society, as a moment with no right to revive.

To be rid of mankurtism once and for all, we have both to realize the positive experience of the past and to master its tragic lessons necessary for developing the present and future generations of citizens of independent Kazakhstan. I will base the present report on both the spiritual experience of the past and the lessons of the Turk civilization on which the traditional Kazakh understanding of the world was being formed, and also on the spiritual experience of the past and lessons of the Soviet period of the Kazakh history, for both are the basis of our modern history.

The democratic transformations of Kazakh society certainly take into consideration the experiences of the west, but to a greater extent they should be based upon certain historical conditions of the development of Kazakhstan and the peculiarities of the Kazakh mentality. The transformation of the Soviet system, of its economic foundation, and above all of its political system with its ways of control and national psychology required overcoming a total alienation of the human in society and developing those forms of vital functions which would enable one to set free one’s creative capabilities. In the first place, this required overcoming the administrative dictatorship of the state, liberalizing all the spheres of vital activity of the society and, consequently, creating necessary conditions for setting up a civil society in Kazakhstan.

Formation of the state system and civil society has always been related to the aspiration of transforming moral and spiritual values. The notion of a civil society is closely connected with the notion of humanity. What we call spirituality is a generalization of the meaning of human life, which was being formed in the process of historical development. Turning back to the past of humankind enables one to penetrate into the profound essence of spirituality. A special time in the history of human culture and civilization – the Midd