An Apostil Regarding Enlightened Roots of Nationalism

Heraclitus has attempted to explain the meaning of life with Pantha Rei principle 2500 years ago. According to this, everything is in con-stant change as it flows inexorably. In a similar fashion, history flows just like the river that Heraclitos refers to. This means that there is no possibility to repeat an incident or prevent one from happening. With-in this flowing course of time and history in constant change there are some landmarks and groundbreaking moments. Those momentous changes have begot unexpected results that effect not only the present time but also the future. Nationalism that emerged within the Enlight-enment and its intellectual atmosphere can been regarded as such a chance and possibility. Enlightenment, being an intellectual, social and political transformation of the eighteenth century has provided grounds for many upcoming emergences and changes. Triggering one another, the changes in the fields of primarily politics and secondarily humanities, social sciences and art emerged in quick succession and formed the foundations of modern social structure. Thus nationalism is an outcome concept of the Enlightenment. With the French revolu-tion, the ideals of liberty, equality and independence transformed into an intellectual and political current and system we call nationalism. This work is an attempt towards presenting a brief analysis of that transformation and a note from our perspective.