Abigail Aguilar, Dept. of Philosophy, University of Nevada Las Vegas

— Much current political discourse relies on the assumptions that nations, nation-states, and nationalism are obviously and inherently bad, and that larger political communities (global or “cosmopolitan” views) are viable and good. Yet these assumptions are not scrutinized in popular discourse in a rigorous, philosophical manner. My aim is to provide (some of) what is missing by clarifying the terminology, showing how a meaningful distinction can be made between good and bad forms of nations and nationalism, and why problems with (some forms of) nationalism do not mean a larger political community is a good alternative.