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ANALYSIS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL STATUS OF ZIYO GOʻKALP'S
VIEWS
Khamdamov Erkin Ibodullayevich
“Alfraganus University” Non-Governmental Educational Organization
Teacher of the Department of Social Sciences
Tel.: +99899 517-34-87
e-mail: hamdamoverkin5@gmail.com
Orcid: 0009-0003-0761-964X
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15083556
Annotation:
From a philosophical point of view, modernization continues
centuries after Descartes and Kant, who can be seen as the founders of Western
modernization; it remains one of the most striking topics of scientific life. The
discussion now moves from the general to the particular and focuses on the
individual modernization adventures of societies. At this point, Turkish
modernization was accompanied by major changes in Turkish political and
social life, starting with the Tanzimat and continuing with the Constitutional
Monarchy and the Republic; This was seen by some Turkish intellectuals as a
savior, by some as a problem, and by some as a result.
Keywords:
Ziyo Gökalp, National Philosophy, Modernization, Civilization,
Culture
INTRODUCTION.
Ziyo Gökalp says in his book “Culture and Civilization”
that “A nation’s taste in beauty, morality, and philosophy… is entirely national”
[7: 15] and refers to our aesthetic judgments, moral references, epistemological
perceptions, and even ontological views; He meant that we derive these from the
cultural world in which we live. Thus, philosophy as a deep thinking activity
dealing with the essential aspects of our judgments such as beauty-ugliness,
good-bad, right-wrong; He emphasized that it can be derived from culture and
its characteristics. This understanding of Gökalp is in line with the general
approach that is still accepted among philosophers today. Philosophical thinking
comes to the conclusion that it must be born and grow in a culture and its
language, and only after reaching maturity on this basis can it or should it
determine universal human values for itself [10: 13-15]. According to Gokalp,
this deep thinking activity called philosophy is the process of a person living in a
culture and “mother tongue” of that culture; It is formed through the
understanding of elements such as existence, religion, morality, politics and art,
criticizing and changing these elements, transforming itself and acquiring its
own identity. Gokalp thinks that “The philosophical consciousness that has
created itself through culture can show itself with a more authentic character in
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its journey towards the universal” [15: 311]. Thus, over time, philosophy can
reach a level where it offers the existence, knowledge and understanding of the
values of the culture in which it emerged to serve people as an ideal. From this
point on, philosophy can now appeal to the universal in proportion to the
possibilities offered by the culture and language in which it developed.
Although it is difficult to estimate how far back the philosophical roots of
modern Western thought go, the late 16th and early 17th centuries are generally
accepted as the birth of this thought. In the first half of the 17th century,
Descartes' concept of thought, defining man as his own mind, and philosophy as
epistemology rather than ontology, emerged. Later, in the 18th century, Kant,
who substantiated Descartes' ideas that the faculty that makes man human is the
faculty of thought, argued that this faculty is the same in every person, and
argued against his concept of egoism. In the Middle Ages, all people could be
defined by a mind that operates on the same principles. Of course, if every
person has the same mind operating on the same principles, our knowledge of
the universe should eventually converge on the same line [2:26]. Another
important figure of the 17th century, Newton, was, apart from the philosophical
side, of a similar opinion to Descartes: He argued that everything in the universe
that could be perceived with the five senses obeyed certain laws. The pluralistic
possibilities granted to beings in the Middle Ages were completely removed
from beings in the mechanical universe described by Newton. In fact, since only
humans could know these laws, the "new ruler" of this mechanical world to
which all beings (including humans by virtue of their biology) were subject was
"Man", that is, the possessor of "reason". This stage in the history of Western
thought and all its results were idealized and became a model for all societies on
a global scale, or at least on a very large scale. This philosophical position
brought with it a new set of concepts that changed our way of thinking, which
dominated the global scale. Moreover, these concepts are not only the concepts
of modernity, modernism, and modernization, but also later emerged as the
center of the concept of modernity. Because these three concepts, which stem
from the same root, are defined by sociologists as “modernity, Western
Enlightenment philosophy, modernism, ideology; This is very clearly defined,
because “modernization is a concept developed to explain this process” [12:
110). In essence, this simple sociological definition is philosophically; Many
productive, exponential and fundamental concepts such as rationality,
objectivity, universality, duality, mechanism and progress emerge or are
strengthened. In Newton’s mechanical world, human history began and
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continues from a certain point. This history, which is the result of man’s
relationship with the world, is constantly developing. In parallel with this, man’s
knowledge of the world is also expanding. Thus, Western thought should start
from scratch and organize the view of the world as an evolving process, and the
continuous development of man, history, society, philosophy, science and
religion. This concept, which is rapidly spreading in the Western intellectual
world, has spread from the natural sciences to the social sciences and influenced
the main philosophical approaches. Over time, the concept of "progress" was
supplemented by the concept of evolution, and the idea that man and his
knowledge cannot be explained and developed without the concepts of progress
and evolution became the dominant concept. Another parallel development of
Western or Western thinkers who view the world from the perspective of this
conceptual development is the rapid and effective development of the Western
world in specific areas such as technology, industry and economics. The
question that those who witness this parallel view must now answer is: could
the idea of progress that emerged in the 17th century have led to the
development of Western industry, technology and economics? Although this
question still awaits its answer, it was answered in the minds of most
intellectuals of societies that lagged behind the West in the aforementioned
areas and even suffered from it, especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
To the extent that the thinkers of this period "set forth the construction of
modernization processes as ideal goals to be achieved by non-Western societies"
[12: 110].
One of these societies, undoubtedly, lagged behind the West in terms of
industry, technology, and economics for several centuries; was the Turkic states
and their intellectuals. Believing that philosophical changes were behind the
development of the Western world in every field, "the intellectuals of the late
Ottoman period and the early Republic considered the connection of Turkish
modernization with philosophy to be a necessity" [14:379]. The intellectuals
who were the founders of modernization found their place in all aspects of
modern philosophy, especially positivism, idealism, and spiritualism, in order to
overcome the backwardness in relation to the Western world.
Ziya Gökalp was born on March 23, 1876 in the Malik Ahmed neighborhood
of Diyarbakir. Gökalp died on Saturday, October 25, 1924, at the Pasteur French
Hospital in Istanbul.
He was buried in the Sultan Mahmud Cemetery on 26 October.[18:1-7] Ziyo
Gökalp was a member of several prominent scientific councils during the
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Constitutional Monarchy. Later, Ziyo Gökalp took his place on the board of
directors and members of the Philosophy and Social Sciences Department of the
Turkish Knowledge Society, founded by Emrullah Efendi in 1913.
The Western-oriented modernization efforts undertaken by Turkish
intellectuals in the late Ottoman period to reform the state, its institutions,
scientific and social life took over the Republican era with a new state, a new
social order, a new scientific life and a new philosophy from scratch [12:111].
The thoughts of the thinker Ziyo Gokalp, who thought about how to preserve the
state and act in this regard, and later found himself in an intellectual
environment that witnessed the establishment of a new state, are a
philosophical reflection of the history he witnessed. According to Ziyo Gokalp,
people are established with a completely human mind and language, first of all,
within the institution of religion and institutions such as morality, law,
aesthetics and economics that shape human life, even though their sources are
divine. So, are civilization and culture the same? Or where is the difference
between culture and civilization based? Gokalp thinks that culture emerges and
develops like a living being in parallel with the nationality of each nation. In
other words, culture is not artificially created by human hands in accordance
with human desires. In his opinion, culture is something that arises in the
natural course of human, nation, individual development and even happens to
individuals of a nation without their will. Civilization, while expressing the same
human experiences, is something produced based on the will and desire of
peoples to establish international harmony and harmony, rather than ensuring
harmony between individuals of one nation. Therefore, when we talk about
English or Italian culture, we should talk about the general Western civilization
that encompasses all these peoples [7:19-20]. Despite Gökalp's difference,
culture and civilization still seem to be interconnected. In fact, he emphasizes
that cultures are influenced by civilizations and that culture must struggle to
escape these influences. But at the same time, he also says that the Turkish
nation, for example, must be included in the ranks of high civilizations in order
to progress.
List of used literature:
1.
Gökalp, Z. Türk medeniyet tarihi. -İstanbul: Türk Kültür Yayını. 1974.
2.
Gökalp, Z. Hars ve medeniyet. -İstanbul: Toker Yayınları. 1995.
3.
Gökalp, Z. Türkçülüğün esasları. -İstanbul: Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı Yayınları.
1999.
4.
Gökalp, Z. Türkleşmek, İslamlaşmak, muasırlaşmak. -İstanbul: Akvaryum
Yayınevi. 2005.
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5.
Gürsoy, K. Bir felsefe geleneğimiz var mı?. Ankara: Aktif Düşünce
Yayınları. 2014.
6.
Heidegger, M. Nedir bu felsefe?. (A. Irgat, Çev.). -İstanbul: Afa Yayıncılık.
1995.
7.
Karakaş, M. Türk modernleşmesi üzerine değerlendirmeler. Sosyologca,
24, 190-120. 2022.
8.
Topçu, N. İslâm ve insan Mevlâna ve tasavvuf. -İstanbul: Dergâh Yayınları.
2018.
9.
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/4747
10.
Xamdamov E. I., To‘Ychiyev B. T. Q. KONFUTSIYNING IJTIMOIY-AXLOQIY,
FALSAFIY TA’LIMOTI VA UNING HOZIRGI KUNDAGI AHAMIYATI //Oriental
renaissance: Innovative, educational, natural and social sciences. – 2024. – Т. 4. –
№. 26. – С. 374-383.
11.
Ibodullayevich X. E. ZIYO G ‘OKALPNING" TURKCHILIK" G ‘OYALARIDA
GENDER TENGLIGI MASALALARI //International Conference on Educational
Discoveries and Humanities. – 2025. – С. 5-14.
12.
Ibodullayevich X. E. FOROBIY VA ZIYO G ‘OKALP G ‘OYALARINING
UMUMIY JIHATLARI VA O ‘ZIGA XOS TOMONLARI //Scientific Conference on
Multidisciplinary Studies. – 2025. – С. 21-32.
13.
Xamdamov E. I. ZIYO GO ‘KALPNING HISSIY VA RATSIONAL AXLOQ TO ‘G
‘RISIDAGI QARASHLARI //Oriental renaissance: Innovative, educational, natural
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Xamdamov E. ZIYO GO ‘KALPNING “TO ‘G ‘RI YO ‘L” ASARIDA IJTIMOIY VA
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