The Epistemology of Nationalism

Abstract

This article poses a number of questions: Is nationalism an ideology, a philosophy, an epistemology or a faith? Is cultural nationalism a seminal constituent of nationalism in general, or is it just a subset of political nationalism? Is physical force an intrinsic constituent of nationalism, or does it arise as an effect of nationalism? Nationalism, as John Hutchinson points out, is generally seen as either political or cultural, and in this article, using Lacanian theory, I set out to deconstruct this definition of the mode of operation of nationalism