The Paradox of European Studies

The paper identifies a paradox within the formation of academic studies that have their focus on Europe. Scholarship in the traditional humanities is supposedly oriented towards the study of ‘human universality’ – but it is almost exclusively concerned with the culture of historical Europe. In contrast, research in the modern social sciences explores Europe as a geographical region, without significant reference to its cultural history – the history through which ‘Europe’ comes to be what it is. Here, then, is the paradox. When studies of Europe are not undertaken as studies of Europe, they are, and when they are undertaken as studies of Europe, they are not. The paper does not attempt to provide a way of escaping this paradox. This is because humanities scholarship has undergone a fundamental reformation since the 1960s, so only the second part of the paradox still holds. In light of this, the paper concludes that European Studies today would significantly benefit from a reformation of its own, through serious engagement with approaches to Europe drawn from the contemporary humanities.

Meet our speaker

Simon Glendinning is Head of the European Institute and Professor of European Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He studied philosophy at the University of York and the University of Oxford, where he completed a BPhil and DPhil, and previously held positions at the University of Kent and the University of Reading. His research spans European philosophy, philosophy of mind and language, phenomenology, and the history and philosophy of Europe, with a particular interest in European cultural identity and the intellectual foundations of European Studies. His books include On Being With Others: Heidegger–Wittgenstein–Derrida (1998), The Idea of Continental Philosophy (2002), In the Name of Phenomenology (2007), Derrida: A Very Short Introduction (2011), and the two-volume Europe: A Philosophical History (2021).

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