On the problem of freedom of the individual as a basic condition for the formation of civil society

The task of forming a civil society is relevant all over the post-Soviet space. As is known, the key subject of civil society is a person. The main feature of an individual in civil society is freedom, as understood in all its aspects. The article deals with the problem of individual freedom in terms of the concepts of «negative» and «positive» freedom and affirms that genuine civil freedom is an inseparable unity of both its external determinants and internal ones. It is noted that, on the one hand, the freedom of the individual in civil society necessarily implies its relative independence from external influence, but, on the other hand, it is impossible without an inner spiritual willingness to act consciously and sensibly without infringing on the interests and rights of others, without understanding that everyone should be responsible for their actions. The paper pays particular attention to the problems of spiritual, and, first of all, intellectual freedom, and justifies the thesis that the problem of the individual intellectual freedom is relevant not only for countries moving to democracy, but also for developed democracies of the West. The problem is not only and not so much how and where from to get information, but how the information obtained affects consciousness and behavior of the individual, and whether it contributes to the formation of his civic consciousness. Considering the problem of freedom in the Kyrgyz society and stressing that the Kyrgyz have managed to preserve their ethnic independence to this day precisely because of their steady striving for freedom, the author comes to the conclusion that freedom for nomads acted as a kind of dichotomy between external and internal freedom and lack of freedom. The article points to the peculiarity of the freedom phenomenon interpretation in modern Kyrgyzstan society, where for many people it is associated with anarchy, hopelessness and permissiveness. However, the real freedom of the individual in civil society is impossible without understanding that «the freedom of one person ends where freedom of another begins», that there is no absolute freedom, and it is always relative and closely related to the responsibility and consciousness of the individual.