exceptionalism is the perception that a country, society, institution, movement, or time period is "exceptional" (i.e., unusual or extraordinary) in some way and thus does not need to conform to normal rules or general principles. ==history== the german romantic philosopher-historians, especially johann gottfried herder (1744-1803) and johann gottlieb fichte (1762-1814), dwelt on the theme of uniqueness in the late 18th century. they de-emphasized the political state and instead emphasized the uniqueness of the volk, comprising the whole people, their languages and traditions. each nation, considered as a cultural entity with its own distinctive history, possessed a "national spirit", or "soul of the people" (in german: volksgeist). this idea had a strong influence in the growth of nationalism in 19th-century european lands â especially in ones ruled by Ã©lites from somewhere else.royal j. schmidt, "cultural nationalism in herder," journal of the history of ideas, vol. 17, no. 3 (jun., 1956), pp. 407-417 in jstor hans kohn, "the paradox of fichte's nationalism," journal of the history of ideas, vol. 10, no. 3 (jun., 1949), pp. 319-343 in jstor claims of exceptionality have been made for many countries, including france, germany, india, pakistan, imperial japan, iran, north korea, spain, britain, the united states, the ussr and the eu.http://nolte.rewi.hu-berlin.de/doc/pub/european_exceptionalism.pdfhttp://www.cairn.info/resume.php?id_article=eufor_359_0083 historians have added many other cases, including historic empires such as china, the ottoman empire, and ancient rome, along with a wide range of minor kingdoms in history.see christopher k. chase-dunn, thomas d. hall, and e. susan manning, "rise and fall: east-west synchronicity and indic exceptionalism reexamined," social science history, volume 24, number 4, winter 2000, pp. 727-754 in project muse == separateness == j. bradford delong has used the term "exceptionalism" to describe the economic growth of post-world war ii western europe. exceptionalism can represent an error analogous to historicism in assuming that only peculiarities are relevant to analysis, while overlooking meaningful comparisons. "[w]hat is seemingly exceptional in one country may be found in other countries."http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/discussionpapers/matsuda.html as indigenous peoples explore their respective cultural heritages, their seeking to be separately classified or newly-understood may be a form of exceptionalism
Critical_theory Exceptionalism Nationalism Philosophical_theories