CFP: International Journal of Philosophy and Social Values

EUROPEAN IDENTITY 

The identity of Europe was historically shaped by the Greek ideal of scientific rationality, by Roman law and by the Judeo-Christian tradition. Moreover, Europe emerged as a specific place through the development of philosophy, as a way of thinking that goes beyond any regional particularity. The idea that European culture has a world significance, because of its relation to philosophical thought, is expressed in Kant's prediction of "a great body of the future" emerging in Europe, a league of nations that will probably "legislate "and will serve as a guiding example for humanity. The "cosmopolitan existence" postulated by Kant as the final end of world history is a philosophical idea of the collective political destiny of humanity. The (particular) history of the peoples of "our continent" is thus bound to the (universal) destiny - liberation or emancipation - of humanity. This optimistic prognosis seems to have been contradicted in the last few decades: European humanity and culture seem to lose faith in themselves and if Europe is still sought by many as a place of refuge or survival, belief in a spiritual superiority of European culture is weakening, in the first place, probably, among the Europeans themselves.

Proposals to the Dossier of n. 3 of the journal of the CEFi, the International Journal of Philosophy and Social Values may address the following topics, but not exclusively:

1. European humanity and the current process of "globalization".

2. The violent claims of cultural identity and the refusal of the "strange" and the "different",

3. The European project and the emergence of nationalisms and regional particularisms.

4. The European social model.

5. Christianity and Europe

6. The great thinkers of Europe, past and present.