Description
Book SynopsisThe European Union and the single currency have given Europe more stability than it has known in the past thousand years, yet Europe seems to be in perpetual crisis about its global role. The many European empires are now reduced to a multiplicity of ethnicities, traditions, and civilizations. Europe will never be One, but to survive as a union it will have to become a federation of islands both distinct and connected.
Though drawing on philosophers of Europe's past, Cacciari calls not to resist Europe's sunset but to embrace it. Europe will have to open up to the possibility that in few generations new exiles and an unpredictable cultural hybridism will again change all we know about the European legacy. Though scarcely alive in today's politics, the political unity of Europe is still a necessity, however impossible it seems to achieve.
Trade Review"Europe and Empire is both timely and insightful. Politician, activist, philosopher and teacher, Massimo Cacciari explores both the hopes and possibilities of a nascent European Union as well as its current demise as a serious world power. What do the idea and reality of Europe hold for philosophy, politics and globalization? This is the central question of the essays of this volume. With great erudition, rich political insight and sharp critical analysis, Cacciari leads readers to a deeper understanding of the aspirations and failures of Europe, all from a deeply philosophical perspective: Europe in its "evening light" must learn to see itself through the "insufficiency" of its own self-definitions, a project similar to the negative theology of thinkers like Nicholas of Cusa. Cacciari calls us to think Europe as an unpolitical community." -- -Antonio Calcagno King's University College, London, Canada
Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: Massimo Cacciari's Genealogy of Europe Alessandro Carrera Part I: Thinking Europe 1. Thinking Europe 2. Europeanism 3. Two German Speeches: The "Second Thought" The Language of Europe 4. Europe or Philosophy 5. Europe or Christianity Part II: The Idea of Empire 6. What Is Empire? 7. The Myth of the Growing City 8. Digressions on Empire and the Three Romes 9. More on the Idea of Empire 10. Empire and Katechon: a Question of Political Theology (From Paul, 2 Thessalonians 2) Part III: Title TK 11. The Europe of Maria Zambrano 12. We Cannot Only Call Ourselves Judeo-Christians. A Conversation with Jacques Le Goff Notes Bibliography Articles Included in This Volume Works Cited Index of Names
