Classify German Romantic thinker Johann Gottfried Von Herder

**Tooting Carmen** · 02-24-2021, 04:07 PM

Possibly one of the nicest and most sensible philosophers there has been. He is often accused of being a proto-Nazi just because he placed lots of emphasis on the importance of nationhood, culture and language, when in fact he abhorred imperialism and notions of racial hierarchy, certainly far more than many supposedly 'progressive' thinkers of his time.

**Latinus** · 02-27-2021, 12:37 AM

Looks like your average Old Stock American, like the ones that signed the Declaration of Indepence.

**Tooting Carmen** · 03-07-2021, 07:10 PM

Originally Posted by Tooting Carmen

Possibly one of the nicest and most sensible philosophers there has been. He is often accused of being a proto-Nazi just because he placed lots of emphasis on the importance of nationhood, culture and language, when in fact he abhorred imperialism and notions of racial hierarchy, certainly far more than many supposedly 'progressive' thinkers of his time.

By contrast, HG Wells wrote a book called The New Republic, which it could be argued was infinitely more fascistic than anything Herder wrote, calling for the extermination of various non-white races for the 'betterment of humanity'. Yet Wells is lauded as a progressive and enlightened thinker and Herder a backward reactionary.

A couple of Herder quotes:

"A monkey is not your brother. But a Negro is, and you must not rob or oppress him".

"How transitory all human structures are, nay how oppressive the best institutions become in the course of a few generations. The plant blossoms, and fades: your fathers have died, and mouldered into dust: your temple is fallen: your tabernacle, the tables of your law, are no more: language itself, that bond of mankind, becomes antiquated: and shall a political constitution, shall a system of government or religion, that can be erected solely on these, endure for ever?"

"It is the apparent plan of nature that as one human being, so also one generation, and also one nationality learn, learn incessantly, from and with the others until all have comprehended the difficult lesson: No nationality has been solely designated by God as the chosen people of the earth; above all we must seek the truth and cultivate the garden of the common good. Hence no nationality of Europe may separate itself sharply, and foolishly say, 'With us alone, with us dwells all wisdom.'"

"If there were such a thing as a European collective spirit, it must feel ashamed of the crimes committed by us, after having insulted humankind in way that hardly any other group of nations had done."