Searching for the Nation: Between Ontology and Ideology
Summary. There are two extremes in the way the phenomenon of nation may be approached: firstly, there are the proponents of nations as real entities, the so-called ontologists, claiming that a nation is an autonomously existing community to be observed and described without imposing one’s arbitrary will and pragmatic interests upon it. Secondly, there are the proponents of nations as products of social engineering and constructing, the so-called ideologists, asserting that there are no nations outside of one’s thinking. They are just the mental representations, the rationalized projections of the will to control large-scale territorial and social structures. These two extreme points of view encompass a broad gamut of theoretical and methodical approaches whereby the very possibilities of nations as valid objects for scientific study are adjudicated. In his presentation “Prolegomena to a Philosophical Reflection on One’s Nation,” Aivaras Stepukonis develops an introduction to philosophical thinking and experiencing by defining the notions of essential studies (esmėtyra), boundary studies (ribotyra), systemics, short-term (ūminė) versus long-term (lėtinė) experiences as a methodical prerequisite for a phenomenological scrutiny of one's nation. In his presentation “Lithuanian Nation” or “Lithuania’s Nation?” Changes in Political Discourse during the Period of Restored State Independence,” Rasius Makselis discusses the usage of the notions Lithuanian nation and Lithuania's nation as they occur in the context of the political discourse during the period of restored state independence of Lithuania (1990–2015). In his presentation “The Great Divide and Some Other Dissonances of Lithuanian Identity,” Stanislavas Mostauskis points out some conceptual tensions within modern Lithuanian identity and the contemporary accounts of it. In his presentation “National Self-Awareness from the Psychoanalytical Point of View: The Case of The Grand Dukes’ Palace in Vilnius,” Kęstutis Šapoka looks at the (re)construction of the Grand Dukes’ Palace in Vilnius as a mental-cultural complexity wherein various concepts of national, social, and cultural self-awareness collide.
Keywords: nation, ethnos, Lithuanian nation, Lithuania, Lithuanians, nobility, peasantry, old Lithuanian, Polish-speaking, modern, Lithuania, state, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Dukes’ Palace, Vilnius, constitution, identity, historical memory, philosophy, phenomenology, political studies, politics, psychoanalysis, symptom, pathology, neurosis.