Setting the Limits of Patriotism

Now if we define patriotism as “a kind of loyalty to a particular nation which only those possessing that particular nationality can exhibit” (MacIntyre, ‘Is Patriotism a Virtue?’, 1984, p.4), the notion of belonging is key. There is no consideration for the characteristics of the country, i.e., its principles and values. It is in this sense opposed to Ernest Belfort Bax’s conception: one must not support a country because it stands for an ideal that one believes in, but rather because it is one’s country. One cannot pledge allegiance to a country for what it represents, because then anyone can do it without being a national from the country, it is not patriotism anymore. For instance, Alasdair MacIntyre mentions loyalty toward Germany for representing Culture, towards France for representing Civilization and towards the USA for representing the opposition against “the communist evil”. Since anyone can believe in the ideal of Culture, Civilization or fight communism, anyone can be a patriot toward Germany, France or the USA. But that is not patriotism in itself anymore, because patriotism involves belonging to a country. The feeling of love for a country and its people only comes from the fact that one is from this country; it is justified by the particular relationship with the country and the people (MacIntyre, 1984).
It is useful to note that MacIntyre’s definition also includes certain circumstances: the world has to be in a moderate state of scarcity and there must be clashes among the ways of life of different countries. In his definition, belonging to a country thus implies depending on it and making a choice on which country we support thus necessary.
Patriotism being characterized by personal and partisan love; this is ...

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...ism of Ernest Belfort Bax’, History of European Ideas, 30 (2004), nr. 4, 463–484.

MacIntyre, Alasdair, ‘Is Patriotism a Virtue?’, E.H. Lindley Lecture, (University of Kansas, 1984).

Nathanson, Stephen, ‘In Defense of “Moderate Patriotism”’, Ethics, 99 (1989), nr. 3, 535–552.

—, ‘Is Patriotism Like Racism?’, APA Newsletter on Philosophy and the Black Experience, 91 (1992), nr. 2, 9–12.

Primoratz, Igor, ‘Patriotism–Morally allowed, Required, or Valuable?’, Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict: Philosophical Perspectives, ed. by N. Miscevic, (Chicago and LaSalle, Ill.: Open Court Publishing Co., 2000), 101–113.

—, ‘Introduction’ to Patriotism, ed. by I. Primoratz (New York: Humanity Books, 2002), 9–23.

—, ‘Patriotism: A deflationary View’, The Philosophical Forum, 33 (2002), 443–458.

—, ‘Patriotism’, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. by E. Zalta, (2013).