The topics of national identity, national character and even national consciousness have once more become the focus of philosophical discussion. But what are national characters or national identities? And does it make sense to want to foster or preserve them? Are such questions even meaningful? As against the new (‘American’) ideals of globalization and of multiculturalism, the idea that preservation of national cultures is a good thing was until recently associated primarily with the countries of Europe. Arguments both for and against the fostering of national identities have thus acquired a new poignancy with the (unsteady) onward march of European unification, and our goal here is to readdress these arguments in light of new European developments. What does ‘European’ mean? Is philosophy itself, as represented by almost all of the papers published in a journal like The Monist, something European? Is this so because philosophy was born in Turkey? Could there be a European identity? Could it make sense to advocate a transfer of national allegiances on the part of the people of Europe to a new European supranational entity? Contributers are invited to address these and related questions from a philosophical perspective.
Table of Contents:
Maurizio Ferraris and Luca Morena
Foreword
Romano Prodi
In Favour of Europe
John Laughland
European Integration: A Marxist Utopia?
Sebastiano Maffettone
The Legacy of the Enlightenment and the Exemplarity of the EU Model
Yves Hersant
Rally Round the European Flag?
Margaret Gilbert
A Real Unity of Them All
Maurizio Ferraris
Documentality, or Europe
Pascal Engel
Julien Benda’s Thoughtful Europe