Freedom Of Conscience Research Articles

Movement toward Freedom: Myth and Reality

The problem of freedom is researched in various ways by the religions of the world, by the scientific theories and by the mythological consciousness of people. The article pays great attention to the myth and its influence on the realm of freedom and on our interpretation of reality. The author understands a myth as a certain free fiction of a man in order to interpret reality in his own way and sometimes to create his own artistic image of the world. Often the myth stimulates the ability of the imagination and thus it participates in the creation and existence of personality. It is argued that the traces of the myth can be found in most ways of orientation in the material and ideal worlds as well as in the systems of human interests and relationships, in the original human desire of freedom. The problem of freedom is central to all human history. Freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, political freedoms - one can name a large number of different freedoms, but the freedom of creativity should be considered as principal freedom. It should be noted also the freedom of thought, which can lead a cognizing person beyond the worlds of substances and energies, to the place where the Eternal Creator should abide. As the world religions believe, we inherit the capacity for creativity and self-knowledge from God. The very same creative freedom exists historically. Freedom of thought is accompanied by spontaneity and mystery. Spontaneity of consciousness and freedom of creativity create a system of meanings that determine the course of human history, while history is perceived by an observer as a completely unique, cognizable phenomenon.

‘The grievances from toleration’: Scotland heading towards the Enlightenment

ABSTRACTIn this article, I analyse some pre-Humean arguments for and against tolerance by early eighteenth-century Scottish philosophers and theologians. I present these in dialogue with the Confession of Faith, which constituted the central doctrinal pillar of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Kirk viewed tolerance rather suspiciously as a danger for its unity, and if the Confession asserted liberty of conscience against the Catholics, it insisted nevertheless on rigid boundaries. This created tensions which the theologians John Simson and Archibald Campbell sought to exploit when they were attacked by Committees for Purity of Doctrine for suspicion of heresy. Simson’s and Campbell’s arguments for toleration revolved around issues of liberty of conscience, scripture interpretation and the necessity of open debate for the moral progress of mankind. George Turnbull and Francis Hutcheson, then, insisted on a moral core of religion and on limitations of the Church’s power. They showed more optimism than David Hume regarding our moral resources to overcome religion’s corruptive potential, under the condition that we are properly guided.

George Keith (1639–1716), an intellectual geography of tolerance from Presbyterian Scotland to Quaker Pennsylvania

ABSTRACTGeorge Keith (1639–1716) was a prolific pamphleteer at the turn of the seventeenth century who moved between several religious denominations (Presbyterianism, Quakerism and Latitudinarian Anglicanism) and geographically between Scotland, the Dutch Republic, the American colonies and England. Defences of liberty of conscience were at the core of his writings which combined his doctrine of Immediate Revelation with Quaker pacifism and were shaped by the influences of Cambridge Platonist Henry More as well as other thinkers of toleration. This essay exposes the connections between Keith’s ideas about tolerance and these intellectual influences. It considers how his proselyte programme for toleration was impacted by his mobility across different religious landscapes. Keith becomes a case study to consider how geographical loci – defined in time and space – can shape ideas of toleration.

Freedom of Conscience in Health Care: ‘An Interesting Moral Swamp’?

Public and professional discourse is often dominated by polarized factions primarily interested in expanding or restricting access to X. Few seriously attend to the meaning and significance of freedom, conscience, health, care — and freedom of conscience — except to the extent that such concepts can be made to serve a “pro” or “anti” agenda or to conform to notions of autonomy and contract.

Исследовательский вклад Ш. Ногмова и Хан-Гирея в изучение этнографии адыгов

The study explores the recent history of state-religious relations in Russia, which began in the late 1980s. The author assesses the impact of globalization on the religious life of the region, highlights periods of transformation of characterized process. The period from the late 1980s to 1997 is characterized by powerful integration processes in the post-Soviet space. The Russian Far East is becoming a clash of foreign policy interests of neighboring states, a place where foreign missionaries flock, whose activities are aimed both at helping existing religious associations, and at disseminating new teachings that are not traditional for the region. Since 1997, after the adoption of the federal law On Freedom of Conscience and on Religious Associations, a new period begins, which is based on disintegration processes. Communities that belonged to new religions and were created by foreigners with enormous finances, but did not have ethnic and cultural grounds in the region, could not stand the test of time and lost influence on the local society. Protestant organizations traditional for the region took shape organizationally, acquired a stable status of a partner of the state in the sociocultural space of the Far East and Russia as a whole. Most Far Eastern Protestant denominations during this period began independent missionary programs in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The adoption in 2016 of anti-terrorism legislation, known as the Yarovaya package, intensified disintegration trends in the field of international contacts of Far Eastern faiths. The processes of globalization were limited to the post-Soviet space and neighboring countries. Against the backdrop of a constant threat from the state, Protestant denominations reduced their activity in the social space of the region. During this period, the formation of the Islamic component in the religious life of the Far East was completed.

Влияние процессов глобализации на изменение конфессионального ландшафта российского Дальнего Востока в период с 1980-х до 2019 г.

The study explores the recent history of state-religious relations in Russia, which began in the late 1980s. The author assesses the impact of globalization on the religious life of the region, highlights periods of transformation of characterized process. The period from the late 1980s to 1997 is characterized by powerful integration processes in the post-Soviet space. The Russian Far East is becoming a clash of foreign policy interests of neighboring states, a place where foreign missionaries flock, whose activities are aimed both at helping existing religious associations, and at disseminating new teachings that are not traditional for the region. Since 1997, after the adoption of the federal law On Freedom of Conscience and on Religious Associations, a new period begins, which is based on disintegration processes. Communities that belonged to new religions and were created by foreigners with enormous finances, but did not have ethnic and cultural grounds in the region, could not stand the test of time and lost influence on the local society. Protestant organizations traditional for the region took shape organizationally, acquired a stable status of a partner of the state in the sociocultural space of the Far East and Russia as a whole. Most Far Eastern Protestant denominations during this period began independent missionary programs in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The adoption in 2016 of anti-terrorism legislation, known as the Yarovaya package, intensified disintegration trends in the field of international contacts of Far Eastern faiths. The processes of globalization were limited to the post-Soviet space and neighboring countries. Against the backdrop of a constant threat from the state, Protestant denominations reduced their activity in the social space of the region. During this period, the formation of the Islamic component in the religious life of the Far East was completed.

End of organized atheism. The genealogy of the law on freedom of conscience and its conceptual effects in Russia

ABSTRACT In the current climate of the perceived alliance between the Russian Orthodox Church and the state, atheist activists in Moscow share a sense of juridical marginality that they seek to mitigate through claims to equal rights between believers and atheists under the Russian law on freedom of conscience. In their demands for their constitutional rights, including the right to political critique, atheist activists come across as figures of dissent at risk of the state's persecution. Their experiences constitute a remarkable (and unexamined in anthropology) reversal of political and ideological primacy of state-sponsored atheism during the Soviet days. To illuminate the legal context of the atheists’ current predicament, the article traces an alternative genealogy of the Russian law on freedom of conscience from the inception of the Soviet state through the law's post-Soviet reforms. The article shows that the legal reforms have paved the way for practical changes to the privileged legal status of organized atheism and brought about implicit conceptual effects that sideline the Soviet meaning of freedom of conscience as freedom from religion and obscure historical references to conscience as an atheist tenet of Soviet ethics.

American Religious Liberty: An International Perspective

This Article compares United States religious freedom jurisprudence with prevailing international human rights norms. I distill these international religious freedom norms and evaluate how selected US Supreme Court cases both follow and depart from these norms. Part I identifies six principles of religious freedom defended by the American framers who crafted the First Amendment in 1791: liberty of conscience; free exercise of religion; religious pluralism; religious equality; separation of church and state; and no establishment of religion. Part II summarizes the mostly parallel norms of religious freedom in the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the 1981 UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, and the 1989 Vienna Concluding Document. Part III shows how the US Court’s cases on freedom of conscience, free exercise, and religious equality compare favorably to international standards, although some religious minorities have often not fared well. Some of the Court’s cases defending the principle of separation of church and state mesh well with international concerns for religious autonomy. But the Court’s establishment clause cases have gone well beyond international norms in expunging religion from public schools and removing state aid for religious groups and services. The Article concludes that religious freedom remains a strong constitutional value in American law and culture, but it needs to be better integrated; international religious freedom norms offer valuable lessons to that end.

Embodying the Sacred: Women Mystics in Seventeenth-Century Lima

In this rigorously researched analysis of the lives of holy women in colonial Lima, Nancy van Deusen offers an exploration of female networks and their particular relationship to embodied holiness. She uses women's engagement with material objects as a primary focus to link a series of case studies, as such objects had both spiritual and didactic potential. As religious women moved in and out of spaces that were exclusively feminine, they communicated theological, devotional, and spiritual knowledge to each other. The monograph argues that women used such knowledge to gain greater autonomy and power.Part 1, “Material and Immaterial Embodiment,” focuses on material objects and their crucial role in early modern spiritual practice. It is divided into three chapters, each of which discusses the ways in which religious objects—such as sacred art, devotional books, and relics of living saints—became animated through the process of devotional focus. It further demonstrates how the objects activated multiple sensorial experiences that heightened women's access to the divine.Chapter 1 centers on Lima's most famous holy woman, Saint Rose of Lima, and her relationship with her female disciples. Rose, van Deusen demonstrates, taught her disciples through her own engagement with statues, print engravings, and cloth. Rose's example communicated how touch in particular could act as a conduit to the divine. In chapter 2, van Deusen expands the theme of materiality and the senses by focusing on the bodies of female mystics and their embodied experience of divine union. Here she connects mysticism with the practice of reading, arguing that holy women transformed into a kind of text that could be read. Seventeenth-century beata Ángela de Carranza, the subject of chapter 3, promoted herself as a living saint through distribution of her body parts (hair, nails, etc.) as though they were relics, highlighting how pieces of bodies could act as evidence for holiness. Taken together, these three chapters reveal how gendered activities connected to wider Catholic beliefs about the divine power of material objects.Part 2, “The Relational Self,” shifts to a discussion of how holy women constructed self-identities in relationship to others—specifically within communities of women and their networks of sociability. Chapter 4 addresses the vocations of women of color as donadas in Limeño convents. Donadas were essentially servants who had been “donated” to convents, usually beginning as slaves to well-to-do nuns (p. 96). Van Deusen looks at large-scale patterns by analyzing the applications of nearly 500 women to take vows as donadas, arguing that their lowly status in the convent did not bar them from spiritual and social networks and that many were able to achieve meaningful spiritual lives.In chapter 5, the author turns to María Jacinta Montoya, who toiled for years on behalf of beatification of her husband, Nicolás de Ayllón. Nicolás was a rare example of a holy person who was at once of low social status (a tailor), married, and indigenous. María Jacinta's efforts were complicated by her support of the controversial beata Ángela de Carranza (the focus of chapter 3) and her entanglement with the Inquisition. But the chapter focuses on María Jacinta's efforts to position her husband's holiness in relationship to herself in a kind of mirroring, contrasting her sinfulness with his saintliness. The last chapter discusses a civil suit that erupted between an affluent mother and her daughter, Josefa Portocarrero Laso de la Vega, over whether the daughter could take vows as a nun instead of getting married as her mother desired. The conflict between the two revolved around how each understood the application of the theological concept of free will. The chapter demonstrates how the relationship between Josefa and her mother shaped important discussions about adult women and freedom of conscience in eighteenth-century Lima.In the conclusion, van Deusen draws together the main themes of the book's case studies and argues that networks of women played crucial roles in the spread of information about the divine among women. The first and second parts of the book could be connected a bit more clearly, as they occasionally felt like different books, particularly with the strong focus on theoretical frameworks in the first part and the employment of social history methodologies in the second. Nevertheless, van Deusen is deft at uncovering fascinating and little-known women whose lives reveal a spectrum of behaviors, beliefs, and activities that shed new light on early modern devotional practices. While the focus here is on Lima, it is easy to see how van Deusen's female religious culture reverberated throughout the Catholic world.

Nazis, Teleology, and the Freedom of Conscience: In Response to Gamble and Pruski’s ‘Medical Acts and Conscientious Objection: What Can a Physician be Compelled to Do?’

Medical practitioners of all specialisms (e.g. RN, MD) are identified by their professional titles. Their function is determined by their regulators, and subject to voluntary employment contracts. Whilst they are expected to act in their patients' best interests, there are situations in which a physician – having human rights – can object to certain acts. This right of objetction arises from the recognition of the practitioner’s own conscience rather than the end or purpose of the procedure being performed. Gamble and Pruski explore an act-centred morality, and therefore define acts as medical (and subject to compulsion) and non-medical (therefore voluntary). This analysis has merit when applied to health-systems as a whole, but fails to take into account the humanity of physicians and the specific interactions with patients in different contexts. As such, it serves as a way of compelling physicians to act against their conscience rather than protecting them.

The Autonomous Mind: The Right to Freedom of Thought in the Twenty-First Century.

To lose freedom of thought (FoT) is to lose our dignity, our democracy and our very selves. Accordingly, the right to FoT receives absolute protection under international human rights law. However, this foundational right has been neither significantly developed nor often utilized. The contours of this right urgently need to be defined due to twenty-first century threats to FoT posed by new technologies. As such, this paper draws on law and psychology to consider what the right to FoT should be in the twenty-first century. After discussing contemporary threats to FoT, and recent developments in our understanding of thought that can inform the development of the right, this paper considers three elements of the right; the rights not to reveal one's thoughts, not to be penalized for one's thoughts, and not to have one's thoughts manipulated. The paper then considers, for each element, why it should exist, how the law currently treats it, and challenges that will shape it going forward. The paper concludes that the law should develop the right to FoT with the clear understanding that what this aims to secure is mental autonomy. This process should hence begin by establishing the core mental processes that enable mental autonomy, such as attentional and cognitive agency. The paper argues that the domain of the right to FoT should be extended to include external actions that are arguably constitutive of thought, including internet searches and diaries, hence shielding them with absolute protection. It is stressed that law must protect us from threats to FoT from both states and corporations, with governments needing to act under the positive aspect of the right to ensure societies are structured to facilitate mental autonomy. It is suggested that in order to support mental autonomy, information should be provided in autonomy-supportive contexts and friction introduced into decision making processes to facilitate second-order thought. The need for public debate about how society wishes to balance risk and mental autonomy is highlighted, and the question is raised as to whether the importance attached to thought has changed in our culture. The urgency of defending FoT is re-iterated.

Hindu views of Human Rights Regarding Religious Minorities, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Conscience, and Anti-Conversion Laws

In India, the Human Rights notions of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion are integrated in the Indian Constitution but interpreted from within an Indian framework of reference that has close links to premodern and modern forms of Hinduism. The doctrine of Human Rights cannot automatically count on meeting with approval from the part of the world’s religions. If the current Human Rights discourse is typically a ‘modern’ discourse based on an initially Western view of the human being, how does it relate to religions such as traditional Hinduism, Neo-Hinduism, and nationalist Hinduism that draw from both premodern and modern sources? More specifically, how do these forms of Hinduism view freedom of thought, conscience, and religion as stated in the Indian Constitution? It will be argued that Hindu approaches to religious freedom and conversion highly depend, not only on whether they are traditional or modern but also on whether Hindu traditions draw their external boundaries from within or from without.

Основні напрямки нормотворчої діяльності ООН щодо забезпечення прав людини на свободу совісті і віросповідання

Забезпечення прав і свобод людини, зокрема права на свободу совісті і віросповідання, є одним із пріоритетів міжнародної спільноти. Свідченням цього є нормотворча діяльність ООН у відповідній сфері. Україна, розвиваючи власну правову систему та законодавство, дотримується взятих на себе міжнародних зобов’язань, у тому числі щодо захисту прав людини на свободу совісті і віросповідання. Метою статті є аналіз базових документів ООН у сфері свободи совісті і віросповідання та виділення основних напрямків розвитку нормотворчості Організації щодо забезпечення прав людини на свободу совісті і віросповідання. Наукова новизна статті полягає у виділенні основних напрямків діяльності ООН щодо забезпечення прав людини на свободу совісті і віросповідання, аналізі базових документів ООН щодо забезпечення у них гарантій і прав людини на свободу совісті і віросповідання, визначенні відповідності українського законодавства у сфері свободи совісті і віросповідання основним нормам актів ООН. Висновки. Україна, будучи державою-засновницею ООН, спрямовує свою діяльність у сфері захисту прав людини відповідно до статутних документів Організації. Виділено такі основні напрямки нормотворчої діяльності ООН щодо забезпечення прав людини на свободу совісті і віросповідання: 1) загальні засади захисту прав людини на свободу совісті і віросповідання; 2) протидія дискримінації на основі релігії чи переконань; 3) захист прав на свободу совісті і віросповідання окремих груп і категорій осіб. Наша держава ратифікувала основні пакти та конвенції ООН, спрямовані на захист прав людини, у тому числі Міжнародний пакт про громадянські і політичні права, Міжнародний пакт про економічні, соціальні і культурні права, Конвенцію про права дитини, Конвенцію ООН про статус біженців тощо. Крім того, під час удосконалення національного законодавства у сфері свободи совісті і віросповідання українські законотворці враховують положення інших актів ООН – як обов’язкових, так і рекомендаційного характеру. Завдяки цьому національне законодавство щодо захисту релігійних прав людини загалом відповідає міжнародним актам ООН. Водночас ряд пактів і конвенцій Україні ще необхідно ратифікувати, зокрема таких актуальних для нашої держави, як Міжнародна конвенція про захист прав всіх трудящих-мігрантів та членів їх сімей тощо.

“The Religion of Man”: Spiritual Experience, Freedom and Tradition in the Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore

The author offers a research of the philosophy of Indian poet, writer and thinker Rabindranath Tagore based on hermeneutical analysis of his book “The Religion of Man”. In terms of phenomenological approach the philosophy of the Indian thinker is described as a combination of spiritual experience in contemplation the Supreme Being, the freedom as a methodological approach, the tradition as the source of thought as well as the proof for the correctness of ideas, which is appropriate to Tagore. Having put himself within the tradition of Vedic rishis’ contemplation, the poet developed his own philosophy (ontology and anthropology). The philosophy of Tagore's religious humanism can be described as a synthesis of freedom of thinking and various Indian unorthodox philosophical traditions. The key idea of Tagore's ontology is jīvan-devatā ('the Lord of life’) the eternal Personality and Supreme Man, the Creator of the Universe and human beings. The phenomenon of a human being is the pivotal point in the development of the universe because he is considered there as an expression of the Truth and the Meaning of a life. The Tagore’s philosophy in this respect is far from the traditional Indian understanding of the phenomenon of a human being. Along with the teaching about the links of human soul to the Brahman (jīvan-devatā), the human as the result of Creation is being considered as His co-creator in the World and the Life, the main figure in evolution, the maker of Civilization and the Creator of culture. Man is understood as free, future-oriented and creative being. Tagore affirms for India the idea of value of human freedom, dignity and his earthly life not only for spiritual liberation (mukti), but for other people, society and culture.

Governors Island, Lifeblood of American Liberty: Composing the National Heritage Triangle of Primary American Values in New York Harbor – Tolerance, Liberty and Welcome – through a Triad of Islands Symbols, Each One Representing a Unique Facet of American History, and Comprising Governors Island, Liberty Island and Ellis Island

ABSTRACTGovernors Island in New York Harbor is the place on which the jurisdictional principles of religious tolerance and freedom of conscience were delivered first in the New World with the arrival of New York’s first settlers from the Dutch Republic in 1624. That jurisprudence was the underpinning of New York’s unique ethos of diversity and pluralism. This article explores the complex juridical and cultural context of the meaning of the welcome extended to Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews in New Netherland in 1654/55. The latter group, mostly destitute Sephardic refugees from Dutch Brazil, sought shelter in New Amsterdam in September 1654 as a result of the fall of Brazil to the Portuguese. They were not welcomed for assorted reasons. Following a petition, the Sephardim received official residency in April 1655; ‘ … they shall be allowed to sail and to trade in New Netherland and also be allowed to reside and settle there’ on the basis of ‘reason and equity.’ Eighteen years earlier, the Sephardim in Dutch Brazil had been granted a license by the Dutch Governor-General Johan Maurits to build a synagogue at Recife in 1638. Construction was started in 1640. The edifice was consecrated in 1642. It was the first synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, prompting the question wherein the Americas started the jurisprudence of toleration first as a natural right and as the foundational principle for religious diversity? Restoring the Island’s historical integrity as the birthplace of New York State and the origin of the vital ethic of Tolerance as the defender and definer of American liberty would preserve the Island’s historic substance and national symbolism as a primary American and universal value for future generations. On 12 December 2015 Secretary of State John Kerry declared that ‘the fundamental values of our nation were built on Tolerance.’

양심의 자유에 의한 병역거부에 관한 연구

양심의 자유에 의한 병역거부에 관한 연구

SWOT Analysis on the Sinicization of Montessori's Children Education

The ideology teaching of Montessori education is a scientific view for children due to the comprehensive education contents and operational teaching methods. There are similarities of educational thoughts between Montessori and ancient Chinese. These are the conducive results of the further spreading of Montessori education in China. However, Montessori education overemphasized in freedom of thoughts and ignored the limitations of the game which neglected the role of educators. There are still many challenges in the process of combining Montessori education with China's national conditions due to the deviation of understanding and the impact of other educational thoughts. In the grasping needs of time for development, through the SWOT analysis on the sinicization of Montessori education combining with the national conditions in China, it is necessary to play the role of game actively by selecting appropriate educational content and strengthening the cultivation of Montessori educator in teaching Montessori education to further develop the children education industry in China.

Delimitation of the ‘Public’ and Freedom of Conscience: Catholics’ Survival Tactics in Legal Discourses in Utrecht, 1630-1659

This article aims to clarify Catholics’ survival tactics in discourses by analysing legal proceedings against them in the city of Utrecht from 1630 until 1659. This period saw a tendency towards Reformed confessionalisation, as is apparent from the rise in the number of such trials. However, despite the advent of anti-Catholic legislation under increasing pressure from the Reformed Church, Reformed confessionalisation was not completed, as the Catholic presence in the public sphere of Utrecht was never extinguished. Backed by their civic status, and with the aid of defenders in (supra-confessional) socio-judicial networks, accused Catholics developed a variety of discourses during legal proceedings. Obedient conformity to the existing norm of the public/private distinction was just one of the various discursive tactics for survival employed by Catholics in Utrecht. Despite the crucial discontinuity caused by the Protestant Reformation and the Dutch Revolt, Catholics continued to be actors in the constant and communal process of delimitation of the ‘public’. Members of the Catholic social elite in particular could actively create space for survival by discursively mobilising alternative interpretations of the ‘public’ and ‘conscience’ that retained medieval legacies, without conceptualising ‘privacy’ in the modern sense.

PERSONAL SELF-GOVERNANCE AND SELF-PERFECTION AS MEANS OF INDIVIDUALITY DEVELOPMENT

Problem setting . Social and cultural processes taking place in Ukraine at the beginning of the 21-st century are associated not only with the growth of democracy and market economy emergence, but at the same time with searching for the spiritual foundations of further social and cultural development. A new society construction is impossible with the orientation towards outdated rational-pragmatic principles, since such a direction of human activity will lead to the destruction of value-content and moral components of an individual spiritual world. In modern Ukrainian society new paradigms of consciousness, self-consciousness, and thinking are being formed and they should contribute to the fact that members of the society can acquire not only knowledge and skills in a certain sphere of activity, but also the ability to communicate and to exist together. Recent research and publications analysis . Modern philosophers, both domestic and foreign, comprehend differently the problems of individual conscious self-development, taking different sets of values into their mechanisms foundation. An individual self-perfection is defined by the majority of domestic researchers as the highest form of conscious self-development manifested in personal continuous inner work in order to achieve an appropriate level of own personal development in accordance with humanistic spiritual values, as a way to constant inner world formation in accordance with the universal (humanistic) ideal, while English-speaking researchers are concentrated mainly on the utilitarian-pragmatic approach to individual self-perfection and put the problems of spirituality to the background, considering only those self-improvement mechanisms which help to achieve a certain goal. Paper aim. The purpose of the article is studying the phenomena of personal self-education and self-improvement as individuality formation and deployment means. Paper results and discussion . A personality self-development is an individual creative activity determined by personal qualities and aimed at “building”; the way of person’s being, at the development of what is not inherited. It is understood as an individual history, a way of a person’s attitude to reality, the content of which defines an individual way of thinking (consciousness, self-consciousness), which manifests itself in the form of a real action of the subject able to build and create himself. Needs, values and interests within self-development can be both general and functional, when they express a person’s direction to the activity final result or its process. Activity to satisfy internal needs (biological, social, spiritual) is an internal impulse of self-development in general, self-education and self-improvement in particular, providing their activity essence, although the nature of this activity will obviously be different in relation to various conscious forms of self-development of the individual – self-education and self-improvement. The integrity of the individual can not be reduced to a simple joining of separate functions into a single system, we must speak about the spiritual and moral integrity, the main thing of which is the content connecting its components. The basis for self-improvement is spiritual and moral core, which fills all person’s functional activity manifestations with moral content. The individualization is the process of a person’s self-identification and personification, the allocation from the community, the design of the isolation and uniqueness. The personality that has become an individuality is an original person, active and creative. Different particles, different dimensions of spiritual essence are recorded in « personality » and “individuality” concepts. The very personality is able to self-improvement - as a person capable to self-knowledge, self-examination, self-control, self-regulation and self-education. Conclusion . It is necessary to create such a human cohabitation project, in which universal values or, rather, «every-human» values must undoubtedly remain their priority, and all others might be everyone’s respected private affair. The very life and accordingly the desire for its fullness, happiness are obviously and necessarily considered to be such universal values; a human being needs to be healthy, have a support and extend the life in descendants; it is important to maintain life-saving requirements of good-neighbourhood, where «a shaky peace is better than a good quarrel». It is individual’s freedom inseparable from the idea of full reasonable life, compatible with the same social life freedom of any other person, freedom to think in his or her own way, to confess his or her own values, freedom of conscience, the right to own some property. Such principle of human existence as love can be the answer to the question how this value system can be reconciled between many members of the human community.

Kecenderungan Kebebasan Berfikir Mahasiswa Melayu Muslim Malaysia Dekad 1970-an

Each student era has its own distinctive thinking pattern that stimulate their activism. This can be seen in their activities in 70s. They are vocal and aggressive in mobilizing associations and groups to approach current issues in line with the young souls who have a high and passionate idealism. This is qualitative study using content analysis methodology from various sources in the form of books, journals, articles and electronic materials related to this topic. There are four factors that stimulate students’ critical thinking namely socioeconomics, dakwah, politics and the Universities and University Colleges Act (AUKU). Many of their activities are beneficial, but sometimes it is in contrary to the mainstream of society and the government policy. This article analyses the above four factors that related to 1970s Malaysian Malay student activities. Students were heavily influenced by the Nationalist Islamist idealism after the May 13, 1969 incident based on religious and national inspiration. The student movement also changed from the nationalist movement to religious-based movement that called on religion as a way of life. Malay nationalism was still a part of idea in freedom of thinking in their movement spirit following the fate of Malay community who were still retreating after independence in 1957.