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European identity and other mysteries - seeking out the hidden source of unity for a troubled polity
Hermes Analógica (2015)
  • Pablo Cristóbal Jiménez Lobeira, The University of Notre Dame Australia
Abstract
The economic crisis in Europe exposes the European Union’s political fragility. How a polity made of very different states can live up to the motto “Europe united in diversity” is difficult to envisage in practice. In this paper I attempt an “exegesis”—a critical explanation or interpretation of a series of published pieces (“the Series”) which explores, first, if European unity is desirable at all. Second, it presents a new methodology—analogical hermeneutics—used throughout the Series to approach the problem of unity. Third, it conceptualises the source of unity as political identity. Fourth, it advances that the vehicle to share such identity is an analogical language: the political culture of human rights. Fifth, it submits the conditions under which such political culture could ground political identity through an open public sphere. Finally, it presents a way in which solidarity can grow as the increasingly diverse citizens of the European Union interact with each other. Even though the economic crisis can be solved by means of sound economic strategy (which is not the main object of my work), any successful economic strategy requires—as a precondition—a certain degree of political unity (the central concern of my research).
Keywords
  • analogical hermeneutics,
  • analogical language,
  • European Union,
  • human rights,
  • political culture,
  • political identity,
  • political unity,
  • public sphere,
  • relational interculturalism,
  • religion,
  • secularism,
  • solidarity,
  • statism,
  • suprastatism.
Publication Date
April 24, 2015
Citation Information
Pablo Cristóbal Jiménez Lobeira. "European identity and other mysteries - seeking out the hidden source of unity for a troubled polity" Hermes Analógica Vol. 6 (2015) p. 1 - 35 ISSN: ISSN 2171 - 8857
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/pablo-jimnezlobeira/19/
Creative Commons license
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC International License.