Тhe Other As A Sacred Principle Of National Meanings

Abstract

One of the most characteristic problems of our time is the crisis of collective and personal identity, as a result of the development of which there is a loss of sacred landmarks, necessary for a person to comprehend his own reality. In this regard, it is necessary to form a theory of identity that asserts the balance of personal and collective meanings. Since national identity is the leading one in the modern world, this paper proposes a hypothesis of the formation of the integration principle of the nation, which is understood as the sacred perception of the Other at the personal and collective level. The western and eastern models of nation-building are considered. In the first case, the destruction of the system of collective meanings is indicated, due to the excessive sacralization of the personality. In the second case, personal meanings are desacralized through the dissolution of the individual in the processes of collective sense formation. At the same time, in each case, interpersonal alienation and the weakening of social ties are recorded. As the main result of this work, the formation of an alternative model of the nation is proposed, in which the Other is perceived as a sacred meaning-forming landmark. The results of the article can be used as a method in the study of the nation and national identity.