Harmony But Difference:Exploration Of Herder’s Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism has become an indispensable way to solve today’s political science,political theory and political practice,and the related research has retained a growing tendency.During the period of enlightenment movement of the eighteenth Century,Herder once held the thought of multiculturalism.Only after Isaiah Berlin,Herder returned to the academic stage from the neglected or misunderstood situation.His thought once again showed the vitality and triggered a boom of discussion.This thesis hopes to clarify the connotation of Herder’s multiculturalism,the origin of this thought,the status of philosophy history and the contemporary value,and will try to correct the misunderstanding of Herder’s view of culture.Herder advocated a multicultural view of "harmony but difference".The core spirit of the enlightenment is the high esteem for human reason.So the "European centralism culture view" takes reason as the standard of judging all cultures.All the cultures which are not understood by reason or under rational consideration are all denounced as ignorance,superstition and backwardness.Herder is just to criticize this "hegemony" thought.He thinks that reason is only a function of man’s "understanding"(man’s Noumenon),and the formation of human nature depends on the comprehensive factors such as emotion,reason and will,through the whole function of the mind,and human nature is influenced by different environmental elements.The expression of the diversity of human nature is the different cultures of all nationalities.In Herder’s view,culture is the intermediary between God and man,and the mediation of "understanding" and nature.God knows all kinds of natural laws to understand God’s meaning through culture,and "understanding" realizes his own human nature through culture.Thus,the process of the formation of culture is the history of human beings.Culture is not created by a single person.It is the product of the whole nation,and the whole nationhas also gained the "center of happiness" in its own culture.Herder believes that this unique intrinsic value is only meaningful in the whole human culture.In the chain of human history and culture,the "many" of culture and the "one" of culture always maintain tension,that is,unity in differences,that is the inner core of "harmony but difference".Finally,the final state of "harmony but difference" is the "humanity" of human nature in culture."Humanity",as a standard of moral judgement,guides people to constantly reflect on Revising diversity in practice and to achieve the ultimate goal of achieving human nature.