johann herder

• Johanna


  German philosopher who lived from 1744 to 1803
• Johanna's key ideas


  • Wrote a treatise on the origin of language in 1772
  • Reacted against the Enlightenment and challenged rational ideas with more romantic ideas
  • Developed the idea of Volk, that each country has its own distinctive culture or spirit that binds the people who share that language together
  • Argued that liberalism cannot be universally applied across nations as each country has its own values
• Germany at the time


  Was not a single state, but had German people living in a multitude of different states
• Johanna's philosophy of nationalism is based on language
• Johanna's ideas


  Linked to both modern cultural liberalism (e.g. nationalism of Wales) and radical nationalists (e.g. Hitler)
• The difference between Johanna's ideas and Hitler's is that Hitler also used race to define the German people, while Johanna's definition was based on language alone