European Identity or European Identities?

  • Carles José i Mestre University of Barcelona
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18543/ced-02-2019pp39-54
Keywords: identity, people, identification, nation-state

Abstract

We will, hereby, deal with the meaning of the word «identity» from a philosophical perspective particularly related with Politics. The main aim of the paper is to determine in what sense the idea of a European political identity would be meaningful, which first of all will lead us to ascertain the meaning of the expression «political identity». It will be defended that a political identity is primarily collective, and that the limits of a specific political collective are defined by a process of reciprocal identification between individuals, regarding typically historical facts: respect of the past (not necessarily common), cultural relationship in a present time (consequently shared), and projection to the future (from an individual commitment). From this analysis, it will be showed to what extent we can pertinently refer to a «European identity» instead of «European identities», and this regarding the idea of «people», and also paying attention to the matter of the political form.

Received: 02 July 2018
Accepted: 16 July 2018
Published online: 27 February 2019

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Author Biography

Carles José i Mestre, University of Barcelona
José i Mestre is a PhD cum laude in Philosophy by the Universitat de Barcelona (2012) with the work «The Moral Evil in Aristotle: Psychological Foundations and Sociocultural Aspects». Partial-time Professor in the University of Barcelona from the academic year 2007-08. Accredited as Full-time Professor by the Catalan Agency of the Quality in the University. Member of the research group Stágeira, concerned about Aristotelian studies on practical philosophy.
Published
2019-02-27
How to Cite
José i Mestre, Carles. 2019. “European Identity or European Identities?”. Deusto Journal of European Studies, no. 02 (February), 39-54. https://doi.org/10.18543/ced-02-2019pp39-54.
Issue
No. 02 (2019): SPECIAL ISSUE. European identity: roots and scope
Section
Monographic Articles. Roots of European identity. PART 1: «European identity: in search of a definition»

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