Nationalism and Beyond: Introducing Moral Debate about ValuesThe book provides portraits of two kinds of nationalists: the tougher type, more common in everyday life, and the ultramoderate "liberal" or "thoughtful nationalist" encountered in academia. The author introduces a debate with the latter, who defends the view that states should be organized around national culture and that individuals have basic obligations to their nation. Miscevic laborates on the following questions: Why is radicalism typical of nationalism? How successful is the nation-state? Does nationalism support liberal-democratic values? |
Contents
HUMAN FLOURISHING AND UNDERSTANDING OF VALUES | 177 |
A Pluralist View of Traditions | 182 |
Can a Tradition Be Understood from the Outside? | 192 |
NATIONAL TRADITION AS A SCHOOL OF MORALS | 201 |
Are There National Moralities? | 203 |
Is Purity of Tradition a Virtue? | 208 |
IS NATIONAL IDENTITY ESSENTIAL FOR THE IDENTITY OF PERSONS? | 217 |
Towards a Pluralism of Identities | 224 |
THE EVENHANDED NATIONALIST SUMMARIZING THE ARGUMENT | 55 |
Can Nationalist Claims Be Defended? | 60 |
THE RIGHT TO SELFDETERMINATION | 71 |
Secession at Will | 72 |
The Costs of Secession | 76 |
THE RIGHT TO SELFDEFENSE | 87 |
The Limitations of SelfDefense | 90 |
HOW SUCCESSFUL IS THE NATIONSTATE? | 99 |
Promises Promises | 101 |
DOES NATIONALISM SUPPORT LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC VALUES? | 109 |
Equality Democracy and Freedom | 112 |
POLITICAL ALTERNATIVES TO NATIONALISM | 123 |
NATION AND CULTURE | 135 |
THE GENERAL VALUE OF CULTURE | 155 |
Replying to the Nationalist | 162 |
Why the Nationalist Should Not Appeal to Cultural Proximity | 168 |
How Good Is the Nation at Providing Identities? | 228 |
THE VALUE OF DIVERSITY | 239 |
THE ANTICOSMOPOLITAN ARGUMENT | 249 |
RECAPITULATION NATIONALISM AGAINST CULTURE | 255 |
ULTRAMODERATE NATIONALISM | 263 |
The Shape of the Compromise | 267 |
Does the Compromise Work? | 270 |
WHY NATIONALISM MIGHT BE IMMORAL | 277 |
PLURALISTIC COSMOPOLITANISM | 285 |
From Cultural to Political Pluralism | 292 |
The Value of Benevolent Impartiality | 294 |
The Value of Unconstrained Creativity | 297 |
The Beginners Guide to the Literature | 301 |
Bibliography | 304 |
Index | 311 |
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Common terms and phrases
appeal argument attitude autonomy Avishai Margalit Bantu central chapter choice communitarian compromise conflicts contemporary contrast cosmopolitan criticism Croatian Croats debate defend demands democracy discussion diversity duty ethnic group ethno ethno-national community ethno-national culture ethno-nationalism ethno-nationalist even-handed nationalist example fact framework given global grounds György Ligeti Herderian human identification Illyrians important independent individual internal Isaiah Berlin isolationism issue justify kind Kurds Kymlicka language Lavinian liberal liberal democracies line of thought linguistic linguistic purism MacIntyre macro-regional majoritarian Margalit means minority moral value Muslim nation-state national belonging national culture national identity nationalist nationalist claims neighbors non-chosen non-voluntary Oldenquist one's option particular patriotism philosopher pluralist plurality political practice preservation principle pro-nationalist proposed religious right to self-determination role secession secondly self-defense self-determination sense Serbian Serbs Slovenian social solidarity stance Tamir territory tion tional tionalist tradition traditionalist typical ultra-moderate University variant Walzer
Popular passages
Page 75 - shall be construed as authorizing or encouraging any action which would dismember or impair, totally or in part, the territorial integrity or political unity of sovereign and independent States
Page 49 - 1. There exists a nation with an explicit and peculiar character. 2. The interests and values of this nation take priority over all other interests and values. 3. The nation must be as independent as possible. This usually requires at least the attainment of political sovereignty.
Page 230 - a belief that each belongs together with the rest, that this association is neither transitory nor merely instrumental, but stems from a long history of living together which it is hoped and expected will continue into the future; that the community is marked off from other communities by its members' distinctive characteristics. (Miller,
Page 90 - (1) The culture in question must in fact be imperiled. (2) Less disruptive ways of preserving the culture (eg, special minority group rights within the existing state) must be unavailable or inadequate. (3) The culture in question must meet minimal standards of justice (unlike Nazi culture or the culture of the
Page 90 - (4) The seceding cultural group must not be seeking independence in order to establish an illiberal state, that is, one which fails to uphold basic individual civil and political rights, and from which free exit is denied. (5) Neither the state nor any third party can have a valid claim to the seceding
Page 23 - social products, not independent atoms capable of constituting Society, through a voluntary coming together. We are as much constituted by our society as it is by us. The biological facts of birth and early nourishment and the socio-psychological facts of our education and socialization are essential to constituting us as
Page 66 - communal life. The communal enterprise is a process whose root is involvement with others: other generations, other sorts of persons whose differences are significant because they contribute to the whole upon which our particular sense of self depends. Thus
Page 66 - we first learn our languages of moral and spiritual discernment by being brought into an ongoing conversation of those that bring us up
Page 79 - it follows that a territorial political unit can only become ethnically homogeneous, in such cases, if it either kills, or expels, or assimilates all non-nationals
Page 64 - of nationalism that it is the conviction that men belong to a particular human group, and that “the characters of the individuals who compose the group are shaped by, and cannot be understood apart from, those of the group