TAJIK ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE LATE 19TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURIES AS A SOCIO-PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS FOR THE FORMATION OF NEW PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT

Abstract

This article examines the Tajik Enlightenment of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a holistic socio-philosophical phenomenon that played a key role in the transformation of intellectual consciousness and the formation of new philosophical thought in the Tajik community. Amid the crisis of traditional forms of knowledge, the strengthening of colonial influence, and increasing social change, the Enlightenment emerged not only as a cultural and educational movement but also as a distinctive form of social philosophy aimed at rethinking the categories of knowledge, reason, individuality, and society.

The article devotes particular attention to the analysis of the historical and social preconditions of the Enlightenment movement, its ideological sources, and philosophical foundations, formed at the intersection of the Islamic rationalist tradition, the Persian-Tajik intellectual heritage, and modern European philosophy. It is shown that the Enlightenment movement viewed knowledge as a tool for social transformation, and education as a key mechanism for shaping a new social consciousness.

The paper argues that it was within the framework of enlightenment discourse in the Tajik community that a shift from religious-normative and commentary thinking to critical, historically oriented philosophical reflection occurred. The enlightenment contributed to the formation of a new intellectual elite and laid the foundations for a philosophical understanding of society as a dynamic and historically changing system.

The scientific novelty of the study lies in the interpretation of the Tajik enlightenment as a socio-philosophical foundation for the development of modern philosophical thought, which allows us to expand the framework of traditional historical and cultural analysis and reassess its significance in the history of philosophy in Central Asia.