20th WCP: The Factor of Consolidation of the Mankind

In our epoch the alarm is being heard: it is reminding peoples, countries, states and governments that mankind, in it's historical development, for a long time has approached that responsible boundary, where the problem of the universal construction of public life on the basis of justice assumes the role of a certain categorical imperative. The present approach has been prepared historically, economically, technologically, socialogically, politically, and, above all, — spiritually.

Everything: labour, morals, art, religion, family, ethnic and national communities, state formations, science and etc. have the purpose, directly or indirectly, of reaching the utmost generalized integrative purpose of all people of the Earth, — to have a happy life, worthy of a human .

The way to acheive this goal was long and thorny. It wasn't easy to understand that fairness must become a reality for all, or it would not exist for anyone. I.e., it should not be reached for some at the expense of or infringement of the rights of others.

Our planet, the Earth, is the home of all mankind. The human race is uniform. The natural resources allocation of the Earth, — the dwelling of mankind, — isn't proportional to frontiers. Hence, the economic, technological, social and political development of mankind should be also integrated, working together in unison and precise balance.

By means of an ideologically contributing factor there can appear, first of all, spirituality, as a generic attribute of mankind, representing the profound, motivating, incentive substance of its vital activity. This spirituality, distinguishing the human from the rest of nature, as a thinking creature, aware of himself and his place in the world and, in the end, making him a public person, hence, responsible for this world, for the condition of his surroundings.

And the core of this spirituality, its "Alpha and Omega" is philosophy. As only it meditates on the essence of the world, of the human, on the sense of his life and on the regulation of human life in accordance with humanistic principles, providing the harmonious unity of mankind and the whole world, natural and social reality.

Hegel has made reference to this, speaking in his "Lectures on a History of Philosophy" (1), that it is possible to name philosophy as something like luxury, as only "luxury" designates those pleasures and activities which do not belong to the realm of external necessity as such. In any case philosophy, in this sense, seems to be something which it is possible to do without. However, people cannot live without food, clothing and shelter. But the main question is, what we deem to be necessary. Just from the spiritual point of view, he asserts, we can recognize philosophy as the very thing to be most necessary. In reality, the true value of human life (not reduced only to physical existence) is impossible to achieve without a high level of spirituality. And philosophy, by virtue of its nature, is the most important component of the phenomenon of spirituality.

Philosophy, in lapidary style, can be defined as the science of causality, moreover, about the causes of the causality. In this quality it gives us representations about what the life of the human is based on, i.e. without which it cannot be held considered human. Knowing these fundamental foundations of regular character, we can "separate the wheat from the chaff", humanize them, thus, transform them into determinative of vital activity of the people in the various manners of it.

What are, from the point of view of philosophy, those fundamental foundations, without which it is impossible to imagine human life, the support of which should move us to the desirable purpose? In a generalized manner, in our view, they consist in the following:

1. Labour, as a purposeful process, with a certain presence in it of a spiritual basis, by means of which the human satisfies his material, spiritual, social and other needs and interests.

2. The society, as an only space, the contents of which determines the essence of the people living in it.

3. The manageability of public life, as a general law of its functioning.

4. The economic life, the manners of ownership, which in relationship to all the other fields of public life, in the end, present themselves as priority, determining ones.

5. Interest, as the key to understanding practically all, without exception, vital problems.

6. Any human, people, country or nation is not capable, using their own resources and efforts, to make everything which is necessary for a normal, acceptable, high-grade life. Therefore, there is the necessity of world integration, the association of efforts of the whole of mankind.

Looking back at the path covered by mankind, it is also necessary to see the following pattern: all and any significant shifts in historical development, both of society as a whole, and of the individual country, were always followed a profound spiritual-intellectual advance.

Something similar is occurring today also. It is evidently visible in the postsocialist nations. If in the countries belonging to the former soviet camp, something is lacking, it is, first of all, the rise of spirituality, the outstripping development of a philosophical sight on the meaning and purpose of life and its problems. Certainly, both economic growth, and democratic transformations are extremely important. But without high enough level of spiritual-philosophical potential it is impossible to solve problems, connected with the realization of economic and political reforms, which have the purpose of ensuring to each human a life worthy of his existence. It is especially important for the postsocialist, particularly postsoviet countries, which, including my Fatherland, Uzbekistan, inherited not only an administrative-command economy and totalitarian system of management of society, but also a damaged spirituality.

By virtue of well known reasons the philosophy of the soviet period was, mainly, put in the service of a "scientific-philosophical" substantiation of the correctness of the politics of a party-state ruling elite of the country. The philosophical heritage of the ancestors of "younger brothers" was simply ignored. The philosophers from the Soviet republics, "equal among equals", didn't have the right to even write independent textbooks on philosophy. The only thing remaining for them was, in essence, to copy what was developed in Moscow.

There were actively spread the ideas of "militant", vulgar materialism, which actually erased the dialectics of the interrelation of being and consciousness, as two interconnected and interdependent components of the existence and development of the human community, assigning to consciousness and spirituality a primarily and constantly subordinated role; in essence, denying its active creative function.

To solve the problems, connected with strengthening of our national-state independence, with the building of a civil society and democratic, lawful state it is necessary to take off our mind all the burden of the past, first of all, in the sphere of perverted spirituality, appearing to be a kind of reflection in public consciousness of the mode of life of the irretrievable epoch of totalitarianism.

That is why the young Uzbek state has considered it to be of paramount importance the development of spirituality: appealing to our own national roots (which are generally acknowledged in the world); drawing on the achievements of a world civilization; building a system of our own institutional organizations of spirituality etc. You can see, that without deep, extremely wide general conclusions, it is impossible to ensure the interrelationship of realizing reforms, to understanding the essence of independence and its significance both in human and in public development.

The independence of the country and democratization of public life have also created conditions for an independence in the field of philosophy. Under conditions of soviet totalitarianism we, naturally, were deprived of opportunities for objective study of primary sources, without ideological blinkers, of modern philosophical ideas of the peoples of the non-socialist part of the world. Now there are the time, conditions and arisen necessity to make up for the loss in this area.

In short, my country, which once had given to the world a Pleiad of outstanding thinkers, today is feeling the urgent necessity for the solution of foremost philosophical problems and breakthroughs in the appropriate areas.

The activities of the Central Asian philosophers of the early Middle Ages (9th - 11th centuries), such as al-Pharabi, Ibn Sino, who were named Arabian by Hegel since they created in the Arabian language, such as the philosopher emphasized in a source already mentioned by us (2), consisted not only and not so much in diverse commentary on works of the ancient Greek philosophers, primarily, of Aristotle, but also in the further development of an abstract-logical moment, and afterwards, in the Renascence, — in reacquainting the West Europe with Hellenic philosophy. With confidence it is possible to say that the people, who have rich spiritual traditions, including philosophical, also have large opportunities for good future development.

Unfortunately, for a long time we have also been deprived of opportunities to study, properly, real American philosophical ideas, representing a theoretical substantiation and putting in order of the American insight on life and the world. We were put, by the will of circumstances, in such conditions, where it was necessary to be content in this respect with "second hand" materials, "critically" reinterpreted in the spirit of soviet ideological dogma. But, even then, independently thinking people, at a hypothetical, intuitive level, could realize, that the American social-economic and science-technological progress would be also inconceivable without the appropriate breakthrough in the field of philosophy.

Here it is enough to point to the fact, that the outstanding son of the American people, one of the "father-founders" and the third President of the USA, Thomas Jefferson, was a famous scientist in many fields of scientific knowledge, being simultaneously, for almost two decades, the president of the American philosophical society. Primarily due to him, the Declaration of the Independence of the USA is penetrated by the philosophical spirit of democracy and humanism.

Today my country and my people are experiencing something similar. As our own experience and the history of other states teach us, that rise of spirituality always results in independence and its strengthening, and, vice versa, ignorance and dissociation always, sooner or later, result in its loss.

For this reason the leader of my country, the President of Uzbekistan I.A.Karimov does not tired to emphasize, that genuine public progress is impossible without spirituality. Moreover, in his just issued, book (3) (in Uzbek, Russian and French, soon to be issued in English, German and other languages), he has deduced the formula, according to which "the threat to security is inversely proportional to the level of the integration of nations". It stands to reason, that the spiritual-philosophical integration of the countries and peoples, both from the point of view of their internal development and on a world-wide scale, is a necessary certain prelude and prologue to economic, social and political consolidation of mankind.

My country makes great efforts to create conditions for a worthy human life, to form a strong civil society with the appropriate state government system. For the sake of this goal, ownership relations are being radically modified and a social-oriented market economy is formed. As the people, deprived of their property, become lumpenized and desocialized, turn into an unruly mob, its destructive force, which is actuated by predatory, animal instincts and domineeringly-hypertrophied parasitical moods, results in the inevitable recession of the economic, social and political activity of the people.

In our society the class of proprietors, the backbone of a civil society and the social support of democracy, is persistently formed. The multi-party system has become stronger. The psychology, thinking of the people vary under the influence of social-economic and political transformations. The interests of the further development of our society assume the growth of a legal culture and political consciousness of the masses. All of this can be attained, in addition, on the basis of the spiritual-philosophical education of the people. As R.Descartes wrote in his "The Principles of Philosophy" (4), the more a people philosophize, the better it is civilized and educated.

In this connection in our republic it is planned to develop in every possible way the publication in the national language, for mass circulation, works of our outstanding ancestors, to devote special research to them and to issue popular scientific brochures. Alongside these, the book shelves of my compatriots should be also filled up with works of modern foreign philosophers, sociologists, lawyers etc.

On the pathway of the struggle of mankind, each country and each people for their well-being there is one essential problem, the realization of which, by them, as well as by each judicious human, is able to lead out them from the labyrinth of modern, complicated life into a wide high road of social progress. Here we mean mankind's destiny to ensure an organic fusion of high spirituality and organizational solidarity of all people of good will for the sake of the achievement by them of their most noble purposes. Without it any aspirations in this direction are doomed to failure beforehand.

Each human should clearly realize, that he should connect in himself, at least, two qualities: as the manufacturer of the material and spiritual welfare, and also as an active participant in the process of public and state management. Nobody can do it for him. The state bodies, called to stand on guard of the interests of the citizens, will only be the same as they are formed by the people. Participation in the activity of political parties, movements and public organizations is not only the lawful right, but also the civil duty of everyone who wants to live in a worthy manner. This merited life is built by him, alongside others, whose responsibility for construction of this life is uniformly distributed among them.

Up to the present time there is, in this sense, the urgent idea, expressed by Plato in his "The State" (5), namely: until state authority and philosophy merge together, the states will not get rid of evils, and, what is more, happiness will not become possible for the human race, and the state order will not see the sunlight.

What does it mean, if it will be treated with reference to conditions of modern life of the mankind, in which democracy, in its complete, verbal, absolute sense becomes the distinctive feature?

Here philosophy (in a broad sense, — spirituality in general, intelligence, mind, consciousness) means what everybody should be possessed of. The political authority is the sphere, where everyone, being the member of a public, political organization, as the subject of an administrative process and citizen of the country, should have his own vote.

Here free market and multi-party system are acting like mechanisms, by means of which the harmony between personal and public interests, as irreplaceable engines of human and social progress, is provided.

In the conditions of free market, everyone, thinking about himself, makes his production necessary for others and, in the conditions of political democracy, everyone, taking care of his own interests, votes for the other.

Democracy is not the gift of heaven, but it is the result of the experience of the people in society through the awfully long process of the reorganization of their life on the humanistic basis.

It is deeply remarkable, that the vital interests of every human dictates, with iron necessity, the need for his realizing the act of consolidation of efforts of all of mankind, because only this could make his living conditions worthy of all the people, without exception, and harmoniously combined with their natural dwelling surroundings, the fragile planet Earth, the responsibility for which, before present and future generations, lies on every representative of Homo sapiens who is occupying it.

It is possible to realize it only on the basis of a philosophical understanding of our natural and social being. Nobody will help mankind to do it, except mankind itself. Philosophy itself will not practically solve this problem. It will be solved by mankind, based on the best achievements of philosophy, as an attributive property of its normality.

The supreme interests of public development demand the harmonization of the individual within a genus, and a genus with its surroundings, in the name of their mutual prosperity. Philosophy is called to take the part of a major factor of this harmony, this unity, as without philosophy we will not be able either to anticipate, or to avoid every possible cataclysm and misfortune, which can trap us on our way to the 21st century.