ARTE 340 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Racialism, Natural Philosophy, Heredity
2 Nov 2014
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Document Summary
Nation (a breed, race) has been in common use in english from ic13, originally with primary sense of a racial group rather than a politically organized grouping. Political uses were evident from c16 and were common from ic17, through realm; kingdom and country remained more common until ic18. National: (n. ) - now used as in a national interest - is political and still alternates with the older subject. It is often said, by opponents of nationalism, that the basis of the group"s claims is racial (race, of uncertain origin, has been used in the sense of a common stock from c16. ) In most c19 uses, racial was positive and favourable, but discriminating and arbitrary theories of race were becoming more explicit in the same period, generalizing national distinctions to supposedly radical scientific differences. Racial was eventually affected by criticism of these kinds of thinking and acquired both specific and loose negative senses.
