CONCLUSION
Both the word _Volk_ and the various ideas for which it stands are
old and are to be found among many peoples. The parent tongue, the
Indo-European, seems to have had a form which meant “full,” “many.” The
“many” easily became the “common,” so that the “many” as opposed to
the “few” was parallel with the “common,” “vulgar” as opposed to the
“upper classes,” the “aristocracy.” This meaning seems to have been a
fundamental one in both ancient and modern times.
The shift in meaning of the Germanic word _Volk_, which extends the
sense to that of “nation,” has been more general and more permanent in
German than in English. It is with these two main conceptions, that is
_Volk_, the common people, and _Volk_, nation, that we are concerned in
this study of Herder. Many examples of Herder’s use of the term _Volk_
show that he makes the word an exact synonym for nation. In many other
examples it is used as an equivalent term for nation. In both of these
uses “nation” with Herder means those bound together only by the same
laws and customs whether related by consanguinity or not.
But Herder frequently makes _Volk_ stand more specifically for those
who are of the same blood, and in that sense identifies it with “race.”
We have seen that these are common uses of the term _Volk_ and the
idea conveyed by it, uses which occur in many languages and among many
civilized peoples.
Now Herder, while using the term _Volk_ in the commonly accepted sense
of nation, has always firmly in mind certain attributes and powers which
characterize groups as such. They have power to rule; they have power
to express themselves in peculiar ways; they have _Nationalgeist_. This
_Nationalgeist_ in the final analysis is the outgrowth of physical and
social environment and conforms to the dictates of these in all its
peculiarities.
In exercising their powers and general spirit, they act as an entity
according to Herder’s conception. He makes the group a single being, an
individual. In Herder’s day when ideas of nationalism had no definite
shape, this added sense of the meaning of nation meant clearly that
he was a forerunner in the realm of philosophy, and gave to Herder’s
conception of _Volk_, even in this commonly used sense, a unique place.
Individuality, personality, distinguished nations just as these traits
mark out human beings.
Herder makes use of the term _Volk_ in a second sense. Here he means
a group within a civilized nation which forms the mass below the
aristocracy and the governing class. This use likewise is to be found in
all languages of civilized peoples.
But Herder is emphatic in noting that this group has not been affected
by expurgating and eliminating influences to the fullest extent to which
these have operated. It has therefore been more thoroughly the product of
natural environment. In the proportion to which innate tendencies have
not been checked and warped, individual traits have had free development.
Therefore spontaneous personality characterizes this group to a higher
degree than it does the more cultured. Here Herder makes prominent
his philosophy that unhampered nature is the most potent force in the
development of this spontaneous personality.
In his collection of _Volkslieder_, Herder does not confine himself to
those which are marked by primitivism, but includes also many selections
of polished literary form. But these all submit to a classification which
takes into account the true expression of universal and fundamental
feelings common to all humanity. Here Herder’s mind is fixed on that
power which the group has to express itself, to express that which is
fundamental and therefore to show forth its personality.
Ossian’s people and the Ancient Hebrews are products of an environment
which is most effective in shaping Herder’s ideal _Volk_: namely,
nature unaltered by the hand of man. As a result of such rough, crude
surroundings, these peoples have developed into simple, harmonious
beings, and possess all the elements which Herder considers essential
in man’s nature. He finds they are natural because they are primitive,
and they possess superior traits because they are natural. They have the
power to give expression to their personality and have exercised this
power in a marked way in their unique literatures. The individuality of
each group is sharply defined in the songs of each.
Now how does Herder arrive at the requirements to which he makes his
_Volk_ conform?
His philosophy as expressed in _Erkennen und Empfindung_ recognizes
inborn forces in the individual which are potentialities differing
in kind and degree of working power in each person. These varying
potentialities he makes the constituencies of the senses which are
accordingly different in scope and capacity in every human being.
It must be noted that Herder does not regard these original “forces” as
constituted by the senses; they are prior to and more fundamental than
the senses. The phenomenon _Reiz_, stimulus, which causes the smallest
fiber either in plant or animal to contract or expand, repeats itself
in the nerves of each one of the senses. But this _Reiz_ is in the
beginning, and without it there would be no _Kräfte_, no nerve, no sense
organ. This _Reiz_, then, is identical with the innate forces, _Kräfte_.
They control and direct the development of the senses and are, therefore,
the very beginning of that variation in sense functioning which initiates
individuality.
It is in the treatment of these original _Kräfte_ that Herder gives his
own turn to Leibniz’ theory of the monad.
The principle of the monad was highly abstract, and when Herder took it
over he gave to it a more concrete application. It became the principle
of innate and varying potentialities. The monad was not controlled and
directed by a force outside itself, according to Herder, but by a power
within, and as the power within was never exactly alike in any two
beings, no two could develop just alike. Here are Herder’s foundations
for individuality and personality.
A perfection resulting from the unfolding of the content of the
individual life and the shaping of its originality are seen in
Shaftesbury’s thought when he makes morality consist of the rich and full
expression of individual powers in a beautiful and sovereign personality.
The individual system as seen in one man in all its physical and mental
elements is related to something external to himself. Altruistic
inclinations are an important part of the natural endowment of every
human being.
Now Herder sees that this unfettered development of natural endowments
will come to its fullest only in relations to others. It is the essence
of his _Humanität_. He goes further than Shaftesbury in that he finds
in this tie, which unites the individual to the group, that which is
universal and fundamental. He endows his _Volk_ with sentiments which are
universal and fundamental. It is this universal and fundamental which
makes such expressions as “Hamlet’s soliloquy” find a place among the
songs of Herder’s _Volk_.
We have seen that when Herder lays emphasis on the feelings, when he is
opposed to arbitrary and restrictive government, when he elevates the
crude and primitive, his system of thought is in agreement with that of
Rousseau. But Herder makes an advance in seeking standards in processes
actually or believed to be found in Nature. His line of investigation in
history, art, and philosophy will be by way of the natural man, i.e.,
the primitive. His _Volk_, then, because of their power to express their
personality freely, give him a theory of art; art must be an expression
of personality.
Both Shaftesbury and Rousseau relate the development of the individual
to the group but neither makes the altruism or interdependence such
an impelling force as does Herder. His _Volk_, conscious of their own
frailty, will have sympathy and a general regard for the needs and
interests of mankind. This consciousness will be not merely a passive
altruism nor an interdependence of material and economic necessity, but
it will be heightened by an ideal love for humanity, which will force to
active and positive efforts to make humanity the highest possible.
When we eliminate details, when we regard only those elements upon which
Herder’s thought seems to be continuous, those qualifications of which
he never seems to loose sight, whether he idealizes his _Volk_ through
his philosophy, his song collections, his study of the works of other
philosophers, or through the analysis of concrete examples, we come to
the following as essentials in Herder’s _Volk_: _Das Volk_ is a group
whose innate, natural tendencies have been allowed to unfold and develop
unhindered and unwarped by civilization. They are people who have come
into contact with various forces of nature in the physical world and have
been strongly influenced by their natural environment.
They, as an entity, possess: (1) Individuality, personality; (2) a sense
of that which is universal and fundamental among mankind; (3) common
feelings of relationship to humanity; (4) strong religious sentiments.
They are wont to express themselves freely, fully, truthfully, in
various forms of art, the individual specimens of which find their test
of genuineness in the response which they receive from the group out of
which they arose.
In this ideal conception Herder sees the best that mankind can produce.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Schiller, _Jungfrau von Orleans_, I, p. 3.
[2] _Piccolomini_, II, p. 7.
[3] _Kampf mit dem Drachen._
[4] Wildenbruch.
[5] Goethe, _Faust_, I.
[6] Fénélon, _Télémaque_, XXIV.
[7] Bible, _Jérémie_, XXXI, 33.
[8] _La Bruyère_, IX.
[9] Dr. Martin Schütze has analyzed this feature of Herder’s philosophy,
“Fundamental Ideas in Herder’s Thought,” _Modern Philosophy_, XVIII;
June, October, 1920.
[10] References to these discussions: Herder’s _Sämmtliche Werke_,
Suphan, volume and page: I, 437; II, 119, 132, 168, 182, 203, 259, 322,
324, 331, 387, 416; VI, 21; VIII, 99, 216, 391; IX, 317, 543; XI, 297;
XII, 334; XIV, 103, 263; XVI, 323; XVIII, 446; XXIII, 569; XXIV, 232,
301, 302; XXVII, 180.
[11] References to these discussions: Herder’s _Sämmtliche Werke_,
Suphan, volume and page: I, 258; VI, 1; XI, 215; XII, 1.
[12] Ossian, V, 325.
[13] Ancient Hebrews, XI, 173.
[14] Ossians Gedichte, _Lieder_ .... V, 196.
[15] Ossians Gedichte, V, 197.
[16] Ancient Hebrews, XII, 28.
[17] Ancient Hebrews, I, 258.
[18] Ossian, V, 326.
[19] Ancient Hebrews, XII, 27.
[20] Ossian, V, 324.
[21] Ancient Hebrews, XII, 22.
[22] Ossian, V, 324.
[23] Ancient Hebrews, XI, 292.
[24] Ossian, V, 182.
[25] Ancient Hebrews, XI, 227.
[26] Ancient Hebrews, XI, 228. (_die Ebräische Sprache_).
[27] Ossian, XVIII, 457.
[28] Ancient Hebrews, I, 262.
[29] Ancient Hebrews, XII, 8.
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