本文從政治思想的角度，對民族主義之政治思想淵源與理論元素，進行深入分析。本文特別著重對於康德的「意志自律」概念和赫德（Johann Gottfried Herder）的語言哲學之介紹，並指出它們如何成為民族主義的理論要素。此外，本文在前人研究的基礎上，補充以個人見解，對於民族主義的三大思想來源，如何使民族主義對個人產生巨大的訴求力，首次提出了一個明確清楚的解釋。除了對民族主義的政治思想要素和訴求力之成因，進行上述分析，本文也是首次以民族主義政治思想作為題材，進行中西政治思想對話的嘗試。用於對話的中國政治思想，則是古典時期的孔子政治思想。本文指出，民族主義的本質是自愛，孔子政治思想的精神，則是抑制自愛與超越自愛的「文明」（civility）。孔子的「文明」理念，因此提供了一種有別於民族主義的新的政治想像。

This article conducts an in-depth exploration on the intellectual sources of nationalism. It focuses on the contributions made by Kant’s idea of “the autonomy of will” and Herder’s philosophy of language to the core elements of nationalism. By showing the links to nationalism between the ideas of Rousseau, Kant, and Herder, this article provides an explanation of the remarkably appealing power that nationalism has over individuals as political agents. Apart from the analysis of the core elements of nationalism, this article also attempts to initiate a dialogue between nationalism and the political thought of Confucius. By showing that the nature of nationalism is self-love, whereas the core ideas of Confucius’ political thought is restraining and transcending self-love, I argue that the latter provides an alternative political imagination based on “civility” that contrasts with world order based on nationalism.