Herder was a Lutheran pietist who lived in eighteenth century Prussia. He set himself up as anti-rationalist, but that was too extreme. Rather, he was certainly against the prevailing French philosophes of his day who propounded the ultimate primacy of positivism and Enlightenment thought. Herder was a cultural pluralist, always skeptical of any universal ideal. He believed in a peculiar form of historicism, in which each successive stage of human development was not necessarily better than, just different from the ones that had preceded it. Each age had unique peculiarities imbued in it through a particular culture. His was definitely not a Whig theory of history. He associated the oriental age with one where theology held sway. “Naturally, the most ancient philosophy and forms of government in all countries would originally have had to be theology! A man marvels at everything before he sees.” The next stage of mankind took place in Egypt. “Everyone could be found where he had his property- thus public security, the administration of justice, order, law enforcement came into being, which would never have been possible in the Orient’s nomadic condition…. Thus man was placed under the bondage of the law: the inclinations that had once been merely paternal, child-like, shepherd-like, patriarchal now became civil, village-like, city-like…. The sense of family weakened and became instead concern for the same, social rank, artistic talent that was handed down, along with one’s station, like a house or field.” The next development in history was that of the Phoenicians. “The first commercial state, founded entirely on trade, which expanded the world beyond Asia for the first time, planting peoples and binding them together…. As the hatred of foreigners and imperviousness towards other people faded- even if the Phoenician did not visit other nations out of a love of mankind- a kind of friendship among peoples, understanding between peoples, and law of peoples emerged.” Herder next moved on to Greece. “Their establishment of common games and competitions for even the minutest places and peoples, always with minor differences and variations- all this, and ten times more, gave Greece a unity and diversity that here, too, made for the most beautiful whole. Hostility and assistance, striving and moderating: the powers of the human spirit were most beautifully balanced and unbalanced. The harmony of the Greek lyre!” Finally, Herder proceeded to the Roman peoples. There was “the magnanimous disposition of the soul that looked past lusts, effeminacy, and even the more refined pleasures and acted [instead] for the fatherland. [There was] the composed hero’s courage never to be reckless and plunge into danger, but to pause, to think, to prepare, and to act. There was the unperturbed stride that was not deterred by any obstacle, that was greatest in misfortune and did not despair. There was, finally, the great, perpetually pursued plan to be satisfied with nothing less than their eagle’s dominion over all the world…. The name [of Rome] bound peoples and parts of the world together that had never so much as heard of each other before. Roman provinces! In all of them, Romans trod: Roman legions, laws, ideals of propriety, virtues, and vices. The walls that separated nation from nation were broken down, the first step taken to destroy the national character of them all, to throw everyone into one mold called “the Roman people.”” The importance was not so much the accuracy of Herder’s history, but the cultural pluralism that he expressed. Each epoch was unique and could not have existed except for according to the particularities of that age.
For Herder, however, the individual was the only essence that was whole. “What an inexpressible thing the peculiarity of one human being is; how difficult it is to be able to put the distinguishing distinctively, how he feels and loves, how different and peculiar all things become for him after his eye sees them, his soul measures, his heart senses…. All human perfection is therefore national, secular, and, examined most closely, individual. One does not develop anything but that for which time, climate, need, world, fortune gives occasion: separated from the rest.” The human being is, of necessity, about particulars. “Human nature is no vessel for an absolute, independent, immutable happiness as defined by the philosopher; rather she everywhere draws as much happiness towards herself as she can: a supple clay that will conform to the most different situations, needs, and depressions. Even the image of happiness changes with every condition and location…. Basically, then, all comparison becomes futile.”
Herder takes a step back to describe the triumph of the tribes of Gaul over the decaying Roman Empire. “Of course they despised arts and sciences, luxury and refinement- which had wrought havoc on mankind. But as they brought nature instead of the arts, healthy Northern intelligence instead of the sciences, strong and good, albeit savage customs instead of refined ones, and as everything fermented together- what a spectacle! How their laws breathed manly courage, sense of honor, confidence in intelligence, honesty, and piety! How their institution of feudalism undermined the welter of populous, opulent cities, building up the land, employing hands and human beings, making healthy and therefore happy people. Their later ideal, beyond [mere] needs, tended towards chastity and honor, [and] ennobled the best part of human inclinations.” Herder’s view on religion was as a spur for human agency. “Religion is meant to accomplish nothing but purposes for human beings, through human beings.” The ages of history were moved less by reason and agency than by contingency and fate. Ideas ripened when the time and soil was right. After all, it was the particulars that made the age. “How often had such Luthers stood up before-and had foundered…. Human being, you have always been just a small, blind instrument, [used] almost against your will.”
Herder did not disparage his age, but he always wanted to put its accomplishments in their proper context. “Wisdom was always narrowly national and therefore reached deeper and attracted more strongly.” One thing he vehemently detested was the spirit of colonization, for it broke down proper differences in cultures. “Where are there no European colonies, and will there not be any? The fonder savages grow everywhere of our liquor and luxury, the more ready they also become for our conversion!… The more means and tools we Europeans invent to enslave, cheat, and plunder you other continents, the more it may be left to you to triumph in the end! We forge the chains by which you will pull us [one day], and the inverted pyramids of our constitutions will be righted on your soil- you with us.” The endless search to satisfy Mammon was also a bane to the spirit of the age. “All the arts we practice, how high they have risen! Can one imagine anything above that art of government, this system, this science for the education of mankind? The entire and exclusive driving force of our states: fear and money. Without the least need of religion (the childish driving force!), or honor, or freedom of the soul, or human happiness.” Herder ends by summing up his view of what the nature of history truly is. “What a work it is, this whole containing so many shadowy clusters of nations and ages, colossal figures with barely a perspective or view, so many blind instruments that are acting in a delusion of freedom and yet do not know what or what for, that are unable to survey anything and yet are taking part as eagerly as if their anthill were the universe- what a work!”
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