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Publication Details

Štefan Polakovič’s Primordialistic Conception of Nation

(Original title: Primordialistická koncepcia národa Štefana Polakoviča)
Filozofia, 50 (1995), 12, 738-753.
Type of work: Papers
Publication language: Slovak
Abstract

The author concentrates on the main points of Štefan Polakovič’s theory of nation, which he himself has named „natiology“ The natiology is intended as an ontology of nation and it concerns many of relevant problems, some of them more, the other less precisely; the most important of them are 1. the essence of nation, which he sees in the sphere of culture, and 2. the external and internal characteristics of nation.

Polakovič’s way to natiology was a very long one, marked by many temporally limited ideas, which are of no or very poor validity nowadays. Although he abandoned many of his earlier ideas, one of them still seems to be the shaping one, framing all relevant questions, namely the idea of the divine essence of nation. Polakovič does not accept neither modem, mainly anglo-saxon concepts of nation based on the idea of social contract, nor the concepts of artificial creation of nations - e. g. Deutsch’s idea of melting-pot. His reflections on the current social political situation leads him to the belief in the eternal existence of nations and in their devine essence.

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