Abstract
n any case, I hate everything that merely instructs me without augmenting or directly invigorating my activity. These words are from Goethe, and they may stand as a sincere ceterum censeo at the beginning of our meditation on the value of history.
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Notes
- 1.
But I am of the opinion.
- 2.
“Übrigens ist mir alles verhaßt, was mich bloß belehrt, ohne meine Tätigkeit zu vermehren oder unmittelbar zu beleben.” Dies sind Worte Goethes, mit denen, als mit einem herzhaft ausgedrückten Ceterum censeo, unsere Betrachtung über den Wert und den Unwert der Historie beginnen mag. In derselben soll nämlich dargestellt werden, warum Belehrung ohne Belebung, warum Wissen, bei dem die Tätigkeit erschlafft, warum Historie als kostbarer Erkenntnis-Überfluss und Luxus uns ernstlich, nach Goethes Wort, verhaßt sein muss – deshalb, weil es uns noch am Notwendigsten fehlt, und weil das Überflüssige der Feind des Notwendigen ist. Gewiß, wir brauchen Historie, aber wir brauchen sie anders, als sie der verwöhnte Müßiggänger im Garten des Wissens braucht, mag derselbe auch vornehm auf unsere derben und anmutlosen Bedürfnisse und Nöte herabsehen. Das heißt, wir brauchen sie zum Leben und zur Tat, nicht zur bequemen Abkehr vom Leben und von der Tat, oder gar zur Beschönigung des selbstsüchtigen Lebens und der feigen und schlechten Tat. Nur soweit die Historie dem Leben dient, wollen wir ihr dienen…. (Nietzsche 2007, 57)
- 3.
On the contrary, as Geary (2002, 3) points out, nationalism, ethnocentrism and racism—specters long thought exorcised from the European soul—have returned, their powers enhanced by a half-century of dormancy.
- 4.
Nevertheless, in international athletic competitions, for example, Spaniards still tend to feel a strong identification with their country and its symbols. On July 12, 2010, when Spain defeated Holland in the World Cup final, all Spaniards, including most Basques and Catalonians, coincided in their celebration of the Spanish national team’s victory. At that time, Spain’s national flag could be seen up and down the streets, waved without reservations, something that had practically not occurred since the death of dictator Francisco Franco (1975). Fortunately, as Geary (2002, 13) points out, if the “pseudoscience” of nationalism has destroyed Europe twice, and may do so yet again, Europe’s peoples have always been far more fluid, complex and dynamic than the imaginings of modern nationalists.
- 5.
For an excellent theoretical approach to this issue, see Hobsbawm (2010).
- 6.
Strayer (1972, 5–7) convincingly argues that instead of looking for theoretical definitions of the state, we ought to look for signs that show us that a state is coming into existence: a human community that endures in a certain space over time, and the formation of impersonal, relatively permanent political institutions that survive changes in leadership and other fluctuations. Institutions that allow for a certain degree of specialization in political affairs, increasing the efficiency of the political process and strengthening the group’s sense of political identity, indicate that a turning point in state-building has been reached.
- 7.
It is more debatable, however, whether the normative idea of the nation in its modern sense did not presuppose the prior existence of the state. Nationalists hold that state and nation were destined for each other and that either without the other is incomplete. However, the reality is that before they could become intended for each other, each of them had to emerge, and their emergence was independent and contingent. This is what Geary (2002, 11–12) calls the “rhetoric of ethnic nationalism”, that is, the demand for political autonomy for all persons belonging to a particular ethnic group, and the right of that people to govern its historic territory, usually defined in terms of early medieval kingdoms, regardless of who may now live in them.
- 8.
As evidenced by the over 190,000 visits received in 3 years, not only from Spain but also from around the world, a noteworthy result for an academic blog.
References
Badie, B. (2012). Quand l’histoire commence. Paris: CNRS éditions.
Geary, P. J. (2002). The myth of nations. The medieval origins of Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Gellner, E. (2006). Nations and nationalism. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Hobsbawm, E. J. (2010). Nations and nationalism since 1780: Programme, myth, reality (2nd ed., 17th printing). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nietzsche, F. (2007) On the use and Abuse of History for Life. In Untimely meditations: Thoughts out of season. Parts I and II (Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen 1874) (11th printing, pp. 96–133). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University.
Smith, A. D. (2004). The antiquity of nations. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Strayer, J. R. (1972). On the medieval origins of the modern state. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Van Caenegem, R. C. (2003). An historical introduction to western Constitutional law (1st ed., 1995). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Aguilera-Barchet, B. (2015). Introduction. In: A History of Western Public Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11803-1_1
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