TRANSCENDING EUROPE
A conference organised by the ”University of Helsinki Network for
European Studies” project ”Rethinking Cultural Diversity in Europe”
Date: 12. – 13. april 2012
Venue: University of Helsinki
Europe, today, is at pains with its universality. On the one hand, it
appears as a universal construction that cannot satisfy
particularistic passions within, and on the other hand, it appears as
only a particular culture that cannot match the universality of the
global world.
But what is European universality? In the conference ”Transcending
Europe” it will be studied as a philosophical concept: as the paradox
of a ”situated universality”. Maybe European universality cannot be
understood as a model that could be used as a source of
identification, but rather as a regulative principle with ethical and
political dimensions? Maybe Europe is not a particular idea imposing
itself on a global framework of thought, but a desire of universality
that can only be realöoised as a constant self-transgression and
openness towards what is other to it?
The conference ’Transcending’ Europe looks for new philosophical
articulations of European universality, its way of being supranational
without being global and of being ideal without being merely cultural.
The keynote speakers of the conference are Rodolphe Gasché, who has
recently published ”Europe, or the Infinite Task. A Study of a
Philosophical Concept”, and Denis Guénoun, whose ”Hypothèses sur
l’Europe: un essai de philosophie” will soon be published in English.
Program:
thursday 12. april
· 10-12 keynote adress Denis Guénoun: Active or passive transcendence?
· 12-13 lunch
· 13-14 Sergei Prozorov, What is the Other of Europe
· 14-15 Susanna Lindberg, Uprooted Europe
· 15-15.15 coffee
· 15.15-16.15 Peter Trawny, Europe and Revolution
· 16.15-17.15 Jayne Svenungsson, Christian Europe: Borders and
Boundaries of a Mythological Conception
friday 13. april
10-12 keynote adress Rodolphe Gasché: ”Is ”Europe” an Idea in the
· Kantian Sense?”
· 12-13 lunch
· 13-14 Matthias Flatscher: Different Ways to Europe. Critical
Remarks on Habermas and Derrida
· 14-15 Timo Miettinen: Crisis and Utopia
· 15-15.15 coffee
· 15.15-16.15 Mika Ojakangas: European Union: A Polity without Sense
· 16.15 – 17.15 Ari Hirvonen