Herder’s Multicultural Theory of Nationalism and its Consequences
Author(s)
Chirot, Daniel
Abstract
Johann Gottfried von Herder was an early romanticist who advocated the right of everyone to express his individuality against a conforming world. He stated that Enlightenment’s universality causes an individual to lose his identity and turns him into a mechanical element of a mediocre society. He is opposed to imperialism because he envisions a world that is composed of several cultures that dwell in peaceful harmony without dominating each other. His philosophy was not applicable real politics. His theories of individualism resulted in racial wars and ethnocentrism.
