Europe or Philosophy

Abstract

In his essay on “Europe or Philosophy” the author wonders whether ‘this’ Europe is at least evoking the philosophical complexity of the notion of Europe. For instance, according to the author, talks of preserving Europe’s identity imply a tragic amnesia of Europe’s constitutional difference. Europe is a Topos-Atopos, a place without place, without a map of cultures, languages, ethnicities, as it exists as a paradoxical entity. Specifically, in the face of global migration flows, attempts to think of a European nation-state with borders make no sense. Now, just when we were thinking we had reached the threshold of the political unity, opposing forces, prejudices and aversions of all kinds - theoretical and practical, philosophical and political – are getting the better. But these opposites are endemic and Europe hosts opposites from the beginning. We are discovering that the attempt to reduce this tension of opposites, the will to impose a union to the opposites is a sort of original violence. Perhaps the only way of redemption is to be found in the acknowledgement of differences and even conflicts, instead of coercing these into a single, unrealistic entity.