Giambattista Vico and Johann Gottfried von Herder laid the philosophical groundwork for cultural or ethnic nationalism, while Giuseppe Mazzini and Ernest Renan developed the ideas of civic nationalism that consciously moved away from some of those premises.
The Foundation: Vico and Herder
Vico and Herder are the precursors to what is often called the Romantic or cultural view of the nation. They emphasized the organic, historical development of peoples based on innate cultural markers.
- Giambattista Vico: Though his work predated modern nationalism, Vico offered a historical perspective where societies developed through natural cycles, emphasizing that each civilization has its own unique spirit or nature expressed through its laws, language, and myths. This idea of a unique collective identity developing organically over time influenced later thinkers like Herder and even Mazzini.
- Johann Gottfried von Herder: Herder is considered the "father of cultural nationalism". He argued that the nation (Volk) is an organic entity defined by a common language, shared folklore, history, and customs. He believed that each national culture had a unique genius or Volksgeist and that individuals found their highest expression within their specific cultural community. Herder saw nations as fundamentally opposed to the artificial "states" of his time and believed in the inherent right of each group to cultivate its own culture.
The Counterpoint: Mazzini and Renan
Mazzini and Renan built upon the idea of a shared history but shifted the emphasis away from inherent, fixed ethnic or linguistic characteristics towards a voluntary, political, and even spiritual definition of nationhood. They represent the "civic" or "modernist" approach.
- Giuseppe Mazzini: An Italian revolutionary and unification activist, Mazzini was influenced by Vico and Herder but infused their ideas with Enlightenment principles of self-determination, republicanism, and democracy. For Mazzini, nationhood was a divine mission and a moral duty, but it was primarily a political community of equals under a constitution, not solely an ethnic grouping. He stressed a "cosmopolitanism of nations," where each nation contributed to a universal humanity, opposing the narrow German romantic nationalism for its exclusivity.
- Ernest Renan: In his famous 1882 lecture, "What is a Nation?", Renan explicitly rejected definitions of nationhood based on race, language, religion, or geography. He defined the nation as a "soul" or "spiritual principle" based on two things: a shared historical memory of past sacrifices and a present-day collective "will to live together"—a "daily plebiscite". Renan’s view is the quintessential civic definition: membership is voluntary, and the nation is an ongoing project based on consent.
Summary of Contrast
Mazzini and Renan can be seen as moving the concept of the nation from a "natural" or "organic" (Vico and Herder) basis towards a "constructivist" or "voluntaristic" one. While Vico and Herder focused on the deep historical and cultural roots that passively define a people, Mazzini and Renan emphasized the active choice, political will, and ethical commitment of individuals to form and maintain a nation. - GoogleAI
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Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra
