Tradition
Nationalism
Overview
Nationalism is an ideology or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining its sovereignty (self-determination) over its perceived homeland to create a nation-state. It holds that the nation should govern itself, free from outside interference (self-governance), that a nation is a natural and ideal basis for a polity, and that the nation is the only rightful source of political power. It further aims to build, and maintain, a single national identity, based on a combination of shared social characteristics such as culture, ethnicity, homeland, language, politics (or government), religion, traditions, or belief in a shared singular history, and to promote national unity or solidarity. There are various definitions of a "nation", which leads to different types of nationalism. The two main divergent forms are ethnic nationalism and civic nationalism, though this dichotomy has faced criticism for oversimplifying diverse historical contexts.
The moral value of nationalism, the relationship between nationalism and patriotism, and the compatibility of nationalism and cosmopolitanism are all subjects of philosophical debate. Nationalism can be combined with diverse political goals and ideologies, such as conservatism (national conservatism and right-wing populism) or socialism (left-wing nationalism).
Nationalism is seen as positive or negative depending on its ideology and outcomes. Nationalism has been a feature of movements for freedom and justice, has been associated with cultural revivals, and encourages pride in national achievements. It has also been used to legitimize racial, ethnic, and religious divisions, suppress or attack minorities, undermine human rights and democratic traditions, and start wars, being frequently cited as a cause of both world wars.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Nationalism is discussed.
Because the battle is long and arduous all general theory is gradually forgotten; in the end, nothing remains but self-assertion, and when the oppressed win freedom they are as oppressive as their former masters. This is seen most crudely in the case of what is called nationalism. Nationalism, in theory, is the doctrine that men, by their sympathies and traditions, form natural groups, called “nations,” each of…
Bertrand Russell, Why Men Fight
names the idea; states what it is; author linked in the graph
The monument is the most instructive single lesson which I have seen in the political history of the revolution. It is composed of seventy-two granite blocks. Upon each is engraved: Given by the Chinese National League of Jersey City, or Melbourne, or Mexico, or Liverpool, or Singapore, etc. Chinese nationalism is a product of Chinese migration to foreign countries; Chinese nationalism on foreign shores financed the…
John Dewey, China, Japan and the U.S.A.
names the idea; states what it is
In Eastern Europe, the Balkanization produced by self-determination has been obviously disastrous from an economic point of view, and was demanded for reasons which were in essence sentimental. Throughout the war wage-earners, with only a few exceptions, allowed themselves to be governed by nationalist feeling, and ignored the traditional Communist exhortation: "Workers of the world, unite." According to Marxian…
Bertrand Russell, The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism
names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Jewish nationalism is a necessity to-day, because only through a consolidation of our national life can we eliminate those conflicts from which the Jews suffer at the present time. Let us hope that the time will soon come when this nationalism will have become so thoroughly a matter of course that it will no longer be necessary for us to give it special emphasis. Our affiliation with our past and with the…
Albert Einstein, About Zionism
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
Yet, to whoever well considers the matter, it must appear that the laws of national (or collective) character are by far the most important class of sociological laws. In the first place, the character which is formed by any state of social circumstances is in itself the most interesting phenomenon which that state of society can possibly present. Secondly, it is also a fact which enters largely into the production…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
author linked in the graph
Philosophers who discussed Nationalism
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Max Stirner
- Ernst Troeltsch
- Heraclitus
- The Ego and Its Own
- Mircea Eliade
- Ernest Renan
- Marshall McLuhan
- Moritz Schlick
- Ernest Gellner
- Intellectual
- Martin Buber
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
- Maurice Blanchot
- Short story
- Julius Evola
- Karl Jaspers
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
- Étienne Balibar
- Rabindranath Tagore
- Jean-Luc Nancy
- Hermann Cohen
- Antonio Gramsci
- Michael Walzer
Related ideas
- Egalitarianism
- Belief
- Ethnicity
- History
- Antisemitism
- Islamic revival
- Vladimir Lenin
- Fascism
- Political freedom
- French Revolution
- Max Stirner
- Feudalism
- George Orwell
- Classical Greece
- Ethics (journal)
- Anarchism
- Greece
- Government
- Galicia (Spain)
- Hebrew language
- Hierarchy
- Moral universalism
- William Godwin
- Marxists Internet Archive
Place in the tradition
Part of Atheism.