雷蒙·威廉斯：《民族主义》读书笔记

nation，拉丁文词源为nationem（人种、种族），13世纪末普遍使用，主要意涵是“族群”而非“政治组织的群体”。其明确的政治用法出现在16世纪，并于17世纪末普遍化。17世纪初期，nation有了“一个国家的全体国民”（the whole people of a country）的用法，national从17世纪始被限制在国家利益的单一内涵中【316-7】national作为衍生的名词具有政治意涵，与subject（臣民）通用。nationality 则在18世纪末和19世纪初具有现代意涵。nationalist出现在18世纪初，nationalism出现在19世纪初，二者从19世纪中叶起变得普遍。群体与政治型构间的意涵一直有所重叠，因为要求成立一个国家以及具有国家权利的建国理念通常预想一个具有政治意涵的国家构建，甚至违反现存政治国家的意志，因此群体往往被要求效忠（The persistent overlap between grouping and political formation has been important, since claims to be a nation, and to have national rights, often envisaged the formation of a nation in the political sense, even against the will of an existing political nation which included and claimed the loyalty of this grouping. p.160.）反对民族主义的人通常认为这种群体的主张基本上是属于种族的；但强调race与nation之间差异性的理论也明确出现，racial具有了特定的负面意涵，racialism即种族主义则是20世纪产生的词，通常用以批评。【317】民族建国主张也被认为是自私的，因为违反了现存国家的利益。威廉斯指出，nationalism和nationalist词义的复杂性通常隐含在如下区分中：将民族情感与民族主义情感分离，视前者为“善”，后者为“恶”，或将民族利益与民族主义区分开，视前者为“善”，后者为“恶”，这种复杂性随着民族主义、国际主义的区分不断产生，前者指的是一味追求自己国家的利益而枉顾他国利益，后者则指涉国与国之间的合作。但国际主义并不与民族主义对立，它仅仅与现存国家彼此间自私的、竞争的政策相对立【318】Indeed in nationalism and nationalist there is an applied complexity comparable with that of native (q.v.). But this is often masked by separating national feeling (good) from nationalist feeling (bad if it is another’s country, making claims against one’s own), or by separating national interest (good) from nationalism (the asserted national interest of another group). The complexity has been increased by the usually separable distinction between nationalism (selfish pursuit of a nation’s interests as against others) and internationalism (co-operation between nations). But internationalism, which refers to relations between nation-states, is not the opposite of nationalism in the context of a subordinate political group seeking its own distinct identity; it is only the opposite of selfish and competitive policies between existing political nations. pp.160-1. 这是非常有趣的观察。