Solidarity as Freedom: Jürgen Habermas, Jean-Luc Nancy, and the Future(s) of the European Project.
Journal
Reimagining Europe. Thinking in Crisis.
Series
SUNY series in Contemporary French Thought
Type
book section
Date Issued
2025-01-07
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Tsagdis, Georgios
Uljée, Rozemund
Zantvoort, Bart
Abstract
The book-chapter begins with the claim "We have never been Euroepan" in order to dismantle the Habermasian European Project down to its elements and trace its limitations back to what I call Habermas's "political solipsism." While, in toto, Habermas's ethics is pluralist qua its discursivity, its epistemology remains solipsistic qua its universal-pragmatist epistemological assumptions. This also has far-reaching consequences regarding which political model of identity should be furthered. As I argue, Habermas's new concept of a "legally constituted civic solidarity" that came to replace his older moral understanding of solidarity cannot rectify these problems. Nevertheless, the concept of solidarity needs to be upheld. In the last section, I turn to Nancy's concept of freedom and interprets it as a model for European solidarity that results in the creation of a third space, where the differences of the various national states, while being respected, encounter each other and give rise to a shared and common European form of life.
Language
English
Keywords
Solidarity
Social Philosophy
Social and Political Philosophy
Political Theory
European Studies
European Integration
European Identity
Jürgen Habermas
Jean-Luc Nancy
Freedom
Theory of Subjectivity
Social Ontology
Neonationalisms
Epistemology
Practical Philosophy
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
SUNY Press
Start page
259
End page
290
Pages
31
Division(s)
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
Reimagining Europe_Introduction_Tsagdis_Uljee_Zantvoort.pdf
Size
674.98 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
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