Eva Piirimäe is Associate Professor of Political Theory at the Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu. Piirimäe received her Ph.D. from Cambridge in 2006, and is a member of the Commerce and Perpetual Peace international research group. She has recently co-edited (with Alexander Schmidt) a History of European Ideas special issue “Sociability in Enlightenment Thought”, and has published a number of articles in such journals as History of European Ideas, History of Political Thought, Eighteenth-Century Studies. At the Center, she will be working on her book on Johann Gottfried Herder’s political thought. Rejecting the widespread view of Herder’s ideas as representing a form of backward-looking apolitical cultural nationalism, the book traces Herder’s contribution to eighteenth-century debates on political legitimacy, modern patriotism and international order. Piirimäe’s research interests also include eighteenth-century theories of moral sentiments, early modern international thought, Enlightenment philosophical histories, early modern and contemporary theories of patriotism, nationalism and cosmopolitanism.
This information is accurate for the time period that the scholar is affiliated with CES.
Discipline:
Political Theory
History of Political Thought
Areas of Expertise:
18th century theories of moral sentiment
18th century political and international thought
18th century philosophy of history
Theories of patriotism, nationalism, cosmopolitanism
Research Topic:
Patriotism, Nationalism and the Progress of Humanity: Herder in the Context of European Enlightenment
