Why did Johann Gottfried von Herder consider historical imagination important for understanding a people?

Johann Gottfried von Herder elevated the historical imagination to supreme importance because he believed that the spiritual development of a people cannot be discerned through purely rational processes alone.1

Rather than relying on fantasy or the invention of facts, Herder viewed historical imagination as an act of insight necessary to grasp the complex relationships between a culture's art and its economic or social institutions. He argued that each culture possesses a distinct collective identity, or Volksseele (ethnic soul), which must be understood within its own specific historical context. By using this imaginative insight, one can perceive how a culture's traditions, religion, and principles of existence are woven into its unique "heart and soul," which are most authentically expressed through its language and folk literature.12

Ultimately, Herder’s approach allowed for a deeper, more empathetic understanding of human history, moving beyond the Enlightenment's tendency to grade cultures based on narrow standards of rationality.1