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Forum for Philosophy

October 25th, 2007

European Identity and EU Legitimacy

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Forum for Philosophy

October 25th, 2007

European Identity and EU Legitimacy

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Pierre Rosanvallon

6.30-8pm | Thursday 25 October 2007
Institut Français, 17 Queensberry Place, South Kensington, SW7

Speaker
Pierre Rosanvallon

The issue to be explored is the question whether a European identity is a functional precondition for legitimate EU governance.

European Identity in Question
Until recently the self understanding that dominated Europe was fundamentally ‘Eurocentric’. Europe’s rational-technical-scientific culture was regarded as unproblematically superior to other world cultures, and its value was accorded universal human significance. The mission of ‘we Europeans’ was nothing short of the world-wide-isation of the European while

Today that self-understanding seems old. And yet ‘we Europeans’ of today can hardly be said to have found a new vision to replace it. We lack a clear view of what it means to be European.

It is in response to the profoundly uncertain situation of contemporary European identity that four cultural and academic centres in London, the Institute of Philosophy (University of London and Advanced Study), the Forum for European Philosophy (London School Economics), the Goethe Institute and Institut Francais, have come together to host a special series of discussions with some of Europe’s leading thinkers to explore centre questions related to this theme.

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