Europe at a Crossroads and the Political Relevance of Intellectual Dialogue

Der Vortrag findet im Rahmen der Konferenz The Role of the Intellectual in Times of Turmoil: Ways of Looking at Europe’s Troubled Geist statt.

Patrice Canivez sees the Double Crisis of Europe along the following lines:

Europe finds itself in the midst of a double crisis: Not only is there a debate about how democratic and humanist values should be interpreted—which is normal—it also seems that these values are no longer widely shared. Significant sections of the public no longer take democratic principles and the rule of law for granted. As a result, the use of violence is no longer taboo, not only in international relations but also within our own societies. In his talk, Patrice Canivez will situate the role of intellectuals in this context by examining:

1. the task of interpreting the current historical situation and raising the level of collective awareness with regard to problems that require collective action (e.g., climate change, the reduction of gender and cultural discrimination, the prevention of armed conflicts, etc.);
2. the “universalization of tradition,” i.e. the hermeneutic process by which a tradition (ethical, religious, political, etc.) reinterprets itself in a way that makes it understandable and meaningful for all other traditions;
3. the impact that the practice of dialogue, as understood in the human and social sciences, should have on actual political discussion;
4. the role the human and social sciences have in articulating, within a sensible discourse, the demands for more justice and for a meaningful existence that arise spontaneously in the form of collective feelings, emotions, etc.

Dr. Patrice Canivez is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lille in France. He has a particular interest in the concepts of transnational democracies and has published widely on political philosophy, especially of Eric Weil, Paul Ricoeur, Michel Foucault, Hannah Arendt and others.