Modern National Identity and Patriotism

Abstract

This article examines the national identity and the nature of patriotic attitudes of individuals with respect to their nation-state. It discusses the dialectic between the nation as a living community and the nation as an organisation based on abstract principles and situates the modern individual with its (non)patriotic attitudes in this dialectic. It seeks to unravel the complex relation between the modern individual consciousness and the modern experience of community and, by juxtaposing the classical and liberal nationalism and communitarianism, to examine the origin of modern national identity. The investigation is informed by the ontological notion of a relation between unity and plurality.

National Identity and Patriotic Attitudes: A Case of Lithuanian School Students

“…The empirical research presented in this paper can be seen as an empirical test of the considerations presented in the previous article (Mitkė, Stasiulis 2022). It employed the focus group research tool to find out the attitude of school students, 5th grade and 10th grade, towards defending a nation-state in war as a measure of patriotism.…”