Political universals like nation and state resist reduction to their parts
Evidence
However, even in this battle of the ghosts, forces are called up which might bring the phony war to an end. One of the disturbing problems in analytic philosophy is that of statements on universals such as “nation,” “state,” “the British Constitution,” “the University of Oxford,” “England.” No particular entities whatsoever correspond to these universals, and still it makes perfect sense, it is even unavoidable, to say that “the nation” is mobilized, that “England” declared war, that I studied at the “University of Oxford.” Any reductive translation of such statements seems to change their meaning. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 731
Categorization
- XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s work on sacrifice/ritual institutions — the reification of the nation as an entity that can dispose of life and death echoes how sacrificial structures stabilize stratified societies. — connects to: Things resist all relational designations humanity tries to impose on them.; Principality and republic are not opposed but hypostatize authority and universality; Universal and particular are inseparably interdependent in democratic politics (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Principality and republic are not opposed but hypostatize authority and universality
#corroborates(0.82) - Universal and particular are inseparably interdependent in democratic politics
#corroborates(0.80) - A cultural tradition can substitute for a weak tradition of national political unity
#expands(0.75) - The incommensurability of universal and particular is the precondition for democracy
#corroborates(0.75) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 378 - Cultural nationalism assumes speaking from one’s own tradition is anti-imperialist resistance
#exemplifies(0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 19