Herder’s Religious Anthropology in His Later Writings
Herder uses the image of the spherical shape of the earth as a matrix to evaluate the contrast between plurality and universality: it illustrates the tension between the individuality of diverse peoples and cultures, on the one hand, and the universal identity of the human species, on the other. While Herder’s “globe ontology” implies a rejection of hierarchically structured—and thus normatively laden—theories of history and culture, it does rely on an idea of humanity as a telos embedded in western thinking. Thus at the end of the Ideen Herder praises the glory of Europe, while at the same time acknowledging the value of each individual people. This essay demonstrates that while Herder might think in oppositions, it is precisely this feature of his philosophy that enables him to advance a nuanced and innovative position that goes beyond many historiographical and cultural-theoretical conceptions of the eighteenth century.