THE NOTIONS "PEOPLE" AND "NATION".
BASIC DEFINITIONS:

What is the meaning of the word "people” as used in this context?

"People" is one of the forms of "an ethnic formation". It is characterized by territorial, linguistic, cultural, traditional and genealogical integrity.

What is "nation"?

People with sense of ethnic self-consciousness form a nation.

Let's consider this definition in more detail. The concept "NATION" corresponds to the concept "PEOPLE" as the concept "PERSON" ("individual") to the concept "MAN" (as a biological organism). The person as individual is characterized first of all by his moral strength of character, strong-willed qualities, vital experience, general amount of knowledge, depth of world perception and, certainly, by his actions. In the same way a nation is characterized by moral strengths, willed qualities of the given people, depth of their perceptions, scale or system of values cultivated traditionally, and, certainly, by extend of contribution to the world culture and civilization.

When do people become a nation? And can there be a reverse process - is it possible for a nation to become people?

In relation to the proposed concept "man-personality" and "people-nation" parallels, we might make a generalization of the following idea of the German philosopher Kanto: " Man becomes a person due to self-consciousness, when he becomes able to distinguish himself from other living beings, that makes it possible for him to freely subordinate his own "ego" to the moral law. The present context concerns the laws, that he has established for himself(or in association with others) [Kanto, I., 1965].

People become a nation due to their ethnic self-consciousness, when become able to distinguish themselves (as an ethnicity) from other human communities and, having established internal (that is - used and cultivated by the society) and external (that is - at dialogue with other peoples and nations) moral values and laws, can freely subordinate to them.

A person is formed from the genetic features of a given man. He is formed and becomes stronger by upbringing and self-education, develops and enriches himself through acquisition of vital experience. Simultaneously, voluntarily or involuntarily, the system of values and individual outlook of every man-person is outlined, or in other words, "personal ideology" or, according to Kanto, "the moral law," to which man-person "can freely subordinate his own "ego".

It is possible to tell the same about a nation.

The nation is created from racial (not only by external anthropological) genetic features of the given people. It is formed and becomes stronger along centuries through continuous statehood and state legislation, developing and becomes wiser with ages. At the same time, voluntarily or involuntarily, the system of values and the unique outlook of every people-nation, or, in other words, its "national ideology" is being outlined [Vahradyan, V., 1995-7].

Of course, the contrary is also possible. Under the influence of diverse external destructive factors the man-person can lose his inherent moral, strong-willed qualities, and, in one case can become a criminal, in the other - an addict of various mania. An extreme display of loss of identity is the "zombie" creature.

In the same way, for various reasons, the nation that loses moral standards, or the one that has never had those, becomes a destructive-criminal (as, for example, Turks); or loses its strong-willed qualities and becomes a slave and foreign-admirer (as, for example, the Armenians in XVIII-XIX centuries), and eventually leaves the historical stage. Cosmopolitanism is the extreme display of national degradation.

a)National origin:

The national origin indicates genetic and racial belonging of an individual.

b)National self-consciousness:

Each man identifying himself as belonging to a particular nation, for example - Armenian, should necessaraly consider of great happiness for him to be the representative of this very nation (in our case - Armenian-Arien).

This is the basic content of the term "national self-consciousness". This concept has both qualitative and quantitative characteristics. The level of national self-consciousness is in direct accordance with two components:

· The first component is the subjectively positive (or very seldom - negative) attitude towards personal biological origin. It is subconcious in its nature, and its intensity depends on the psycho-physiological constitution of each particular person.

· The second component is the measure (force) of conviction of each person in correctness of ideas of spiritual, or otherwise, moral - ethical values professed and cultivated by his nation.

e)National belonging:

National self-consciousness is a necessary, and a sufficiently required condition for national belonging.