Food for Thought

Week 6: Tuesday, February 22

To make sense of today's readings, I suggest you understand:

• what exactly Romanticism was, as defined by the main text
• the three features, according to Smith, that appeared among all romanticisms
• the three natural laws outlined by Herder
• Herder's twelve premises

Questions

1) What are Kedourie's criticisms of romantic nationalism as he sees it?

2) What were the Romantic beliefs and assumptions, according to Smith, that fostered a belief in the nation.

3) According to Smith, why did Romantic artists find nationalism so attractive?

4) What does Herder say about people and their environments? Why would such an observation be significant for the history of nations and nationalism?

5) Get our your thinking cap for this one—the answer is not in the text. You will have to think this one through based on the reading. Why are the three natural laws developed by Herder in the reading so significant for the development of nationalism as a concept?

6) Now that you have a thinking cap on your head, use it for this question as well. Read Herder's twelve premises. Taken all together, why are they significant for the development of nationalism as a concept? How does they sanctify and legitimate the development of different peoples?

7) According to Herder, what seems to be the point of studying the history of mankind? What will we learn?