Wojciech SłomskiCorresponding authorORCID id

Philosophy of Culture and European Identity

Article
8 - 2003, pages 13-21
Date of online publication: 22 septembre 2016
Date of publication: 30 novembre 2003

Abstract

The problem of identity at least these days, is not a directly philosophical problem, but rather the subject of disputes in the well-known newspapers. Identity is rarely the subject of modern famous thinkers' speeches. This is because in the present process of uniting Europe, the main debate centres around the economic and political aspects of the process, whilst the cultural aspects are put to one side. It is worth mentioning here C. Adenauer's assertion: „The ground of European unity is an idea of Christian community, culture and European civilization." In this context we can also mention the previous chairman of the European Commission, J . Dolors, who states: „If Europe does not have its own soul, it will not define itself as cultural, it will not be Europe. But if it is only a political or economical community, it will not absolutely fulfil its task." It is not difficult to notice the difference between these two statements; the first highlights the problem of cultural unity, formulated as a postulate, a kind of program which must be carried out in the future. We can interpret Dolors' thought as a kind of warning against neglecting the problem of cultural identity.

Cite this article

Słomski, Wojciech. “The Philosophy of Culture and European Identity.” Forum Philosophicum 8 (2004): 13–21. doi:10.35765/forphil.2003.0801.2.