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"Europe: The Tragic Continent"

Author(s):

  • de Mul, Jos

Series Name: Michigan Paper Series

Publication Date: 2008

Description: Lecture given as part of the "Conversations on Europe" lecture series. "Two weeks ago, in his lecture in this series on Europe, Neal Ascherson asked two intriguing questions: 'Where is Europe?', and 'When is Europe'. Intriguing because it turned out that these seemingly simply questions are very hard to answer. Today I want to add a third question, as simple as the other two and as difficult to answer. This question is: What is Europe? In a sense, we may regard this third question as the primordial one, as we can start our search for Europe in time and space only when we at least have a slight idea of what we are actually looking for. So the question I want to address this afternoon is: what is it that makes Europe European? And as the title of my talk already indicates, the answer I will defend today is that Europe first and foremost is a tragic continent."

Author Bio: Professor, philosophy of man and culture, Faculty of Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam; author of The Tragedy of Finitude (Yale, 2004); and CES Winter 2008 Netherlands Visiting Professor.

Document: /UMICH/ceseuc/Home/EVENTS & PROGRAMS/Michigan Paper Series/2008-02-07 Europe - The tragic continent (final version).pdf

Notes/Comments: Michigan Paper Series