Nationalism or patriotism? The rhetorical genesis of a false dilemma

Abstract

Starting from a recent ideological and political controversy regarding the devaluation of the concept of “nationalism” in relation to that of ‘patriotism”, the author – following his own years-long investigations on the subject – historically and philosophically reframes each of these concepts from the perspective of rhetoric and argumentation. It is shown, in this context, that the arguments in question are fallacious (and even, in some applications, clearly perverse) and a radical and provocative reformulation of the aforementioned concepts and the controversy involved is proposed – a reformulation which, eventually and at best, may give rise to a new historiography on the subject.