Аннотация
Abstract. Based on the analysis of the texts of philosophers and thinkers – remarkable figures and theorists of the Kazakh and the European Enlightenments – the article reveals some questions of philosophical and ideological foundations of modernization processes in the modern Republic of Kazakhstan. In particular, the research holds a comparative analysis of the definitions of the Enlightenment givenby Immanuel Kant in the 1784s essay “The Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?”, on the one hand, and, on the other, by Shokan Walikhanov in his 1864s work “Judicial Reform Note.” It uses both direct author’s analysis of the texts themselves, as well as the critical analysis of Enlightenment’s theorists made in the second half of the 20th century by Western philosophers Hannah Arendt, JurgenHabermas, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida. In general, the article emphasizes the possible problem statement of Kazakh modernization, which should be considered as an object of philosophical, historical, anthropological, political and social analysis in order to clearly designating not only technical (Industry 4.0), economic (digital economy), but also axiological, ideological and theoretical framework of theprocess of modernization of the Republic of Kazakhstan (the concept of the so-called “modernization of consciousness”). Key words: European enlightenment, Kazakh enlightenment, kazakhstani modernization, modernization of consciousness, Republic of Kazakhstan, digital society, critical theory, critical philosophy, postmodernism.