Abstract

In this paper we shall consider how the globalization of media has destroyed the metaphysical link between the nation as political entity the nation cultural unit, a link which was postulated by the Romantic philosophical tradition and that at the same time has been deeply engrained in the common sense idea of national identity. The paper has three sections. In the first one we consider the two meanings of the concept "nation" and show that their possible aiffinity is only understandable taking into account the relevance of the spatial and temporal determinations of existence. We deal with such kinds of determination in the second section; finally, m the third one we suggest that the political and cultural dynamics of the current intemational order have subverted those determinations and have fostered a new vision of existence in convergence with the so-called American way of life and, by the same token, weakened the traditional idea of nation.