When we eliminate details, when we regard only those elements upon which Herder’s thought seems to be continuous, those qualifications of which he never seems to loose sight, whether he idealizes his Volk through his philosophy, his song collections, his study of the works of other philosophers, or through the analysis of concrete examples, we come to the following as essentials in Herder’s Volk: Das Volk is a group whose innate, natural tendencies have been allowed to unfold and develop unhindered and unwarped by civilization. They are people who have come into contact with various forces of nature in the physical world and have been strongly influenced by their natural environment.
They, as an entity, possess: (1) Individuality, personality; (2) a sense of that which is universal and fundamental among mankind; (3) common feelings of relationship to humanity; (4) strong religious sentiments.
They are wont to express themselves freely, fully, truthfully, in various forms of art, the individual specimens of which find their test of genuineness in the response which they receive from the group out of which they arose.
In this ideal conception Herder sees the best that mankind can produce.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Schiller, Jungfrau von Orleans, I, p. 3.
[2] Piccolomini, II, p. 7.
[3] Kampf mit dem Drachen.
[4] Wildenbruch.
[5] Goethe, Faust, I.