The Reality of a National Mind

“The Reality of a National Mind” discusses how we perceive reality and act upon it using the mental schemas that we acquire in a particular national cultural setting. It examines ‘cognitive centralization’ through knowledge production, distribution, and coordination institutions (such as schools and mass media), which operate in the national language. It analyzes the role of national culture and its ideological component (broadly defined as nationalism) in framing the human experience of knowing, thinking, and feeling. The chapter argues that nationalism, as a knowledge and feeling system, influences our perception of the world not only in terms of social and political categories but even regarding physical phenomena.