Ernest Renan on the Concept of Nation and the Georgian Political Thought

Abstract

The article highlights the main aspects of the lecture given by the famous French scholar Enest Renan titled as “What is a Nation” (1882) and the subsequent discussion emerging in the Georgian society. His lecture was translated into Georgian on the same year and became a hotly debated. It influenced on the viewpoint of many Georgian public figures of the time. The re-translation of his lecture into Georgian in 1901 was conditioned of those time contraditiction occurring in the Georgian society. The viewpoint of Renan was referred by national forces as the main argument against the Georgian Marxists; the latter were on the position of national nihilism at that time.