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Heretical Europe: Jan Patočka as symbol of dissident contingency

Post-Europe, for Patočka, must be acutely aware of its own contingency even when it proclaims (above all when it proclaims) the sanctity of universal principles.

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Europe, the Very Idea
Europe, the Very Idea

Europe, the very idea is a series on the philosophical notion of Europe and what reflection upon it can lend to the sphere of concrete politics.


Claude Lorraine’s Coast scene with Europa and the bull, detail (1634). Wikicommons. Some rights reserved.
Claude Lorraine’s Coast scene with Europa and the bull, detail (1634). Wikicommons. Some rights reserved.

Claude Lorraine’s Coast scene with Europa and the bull, detail (1634). Wikicommons. Some rights reserved.The term ‘euro-skepticism’, as it is usually deployed, creates a kind of idiocy in public debate by assimilating many diverse positions. We can sketch at least three possible positions (all of which would require further clarification).