In contemporary debates, the concept of Europe is most often discussed and defined in terms of a geographical, cultural, political, or even as an economic entity. This dissertation aims at reinstituting the philosophical relevance of this concept by articulating a novel understanding of one of its guiding intellectual motives: the idea of universalism. Against the typically modern understanding of this idea - most evident in the violent and unilateral history of European expansionism - this work provides a new formulation of this idea as a necessarily pluralistic and self-critical category of historical and intercultural reflection. This work has its methodological and conceptual background in the philosophical work of Edmund Husserl (1859 - 1938). Late in his career, Husserl - the founder of modern phenomenology - composed a series of essays and lectures discussing the topic of Europe, its philosophical idea and teleological history. These texts, which had their imminent background in the devastating experience of the First World War (1914 - 1918) and the consequent political turmoil of the Weimar Republic, took their point of departure from the overall cultural crisis of European humanity, which seemed to lose its confidence in the founding ideas of modernity, most importantly, in the ideas of universal reason and progress that structure the domains of scientific and political activity. The argument of this work is based on an interpretation according to which Husserl s late reflections on Europe should not be treated as mere analyses of contemporary criticism, but as serious phenomenological reflections on the particular topics of generativity and historicity, that is, those forms of meaning-creation that take place in interpersonal, intergenerational and geo-historical processes of co-operation. Through his reflections on Europe, it is argued, Husserl reformulated his phenomenological project in order to account for its intersubjective, historical and normative dimensions. In the light of the phenomenological analysis, the idea of Europe appears as a specific task of renewal and critique. This task, which has its origin in the birth of Greek philosophy, is corresponded by specific forms of intersubjectivity and historicity. As a result, the dissertation provides a new constructive interpretation on some of the key concepts of modern philosophy of history. Against the postmodern critique on the impossibility of the teleological view of history - the end of grand narratives - the work defends the ideas of crisis, teleology and universal history as inalienable tools of philosophical reflection and critique.
In contemporary debates, the concept of Europe is most often discussed and defined in terms of a geographical, cultural, political, or even as an economic entity. This dissertation aims at reinstituting the philosophical relevance of this concept by articulating a novel understanding of one of its guiding intellectual motives: the idea of universalism. Against the typically modern understanding of this idea - most evident in the violent and unilateral history of European expansionism - this work provides a new formulation of this idea as a necessarily pluralistic and self-critical category of historical and intercultural reflection. This work has its methodological and conceptual background in the philosophical work of Edmund Husserl (1859 - 1938). Late in his career, Husserl - the founder of modern phenomenology - composed a series of essays and lectures discussing the topic of Europe, its philosophical idea and teleological history. These texts, which had their imminent background in the devastating experience of the First World War (1914 - 1918) and the consequent political turmoil of the Weimar Republic, took their point of departure from the overall cultural crisis of European humanity, which seemed to lose its confidence in the founding ideas of modernity, most importantly, in the ideas of universal reason and progress that structure the domains of scientific and political activity. The argument of this work is based on an interpretation according to which Husserl s late reflections on Europe should not be treated as mere analyses of contemporary criticism, but as serious phenomenological reflections on the particular topics of generativity and historicity, that is, those forms of meaning-creation that take place in interpersonal, intergenerational and geo-historical processes of co-operation. Through his reflections on Europe, it is argued, Husserl reformulated his phenomenological project in order to account for its intersubjective, historical and normative dimensions. In the light of the phenomenological analysis, the idea of Europe appears as a specific task of renewal and critique. This task, which has its origin in the birth of Greek philosophy, is corresponded by specific forms of intersubjectivity and historicity. As a result, the dissertation provides a new constructive interpretation on some of the key concepts of modern philosophy of history. Against the postmodern critique on the impossibility of the teleological view of history - the end of grand narratives - the work defends the ideas of crisis, teleology and universal history as inalienable tools of philosophical reflection and critique.
