European intellectual history

Le philhellénisme d’inspiration conservatrice en Europe et en Russie (Conservative Philhellenism in Europe and in Russia)

by Stella Ghervas

published in "Peuples, Etats et nations dans le Sud-Est de l’Europe", Bucharest, Ed. Anima, 2004, pp. 98-110.

S’il est un point sur lequel les chercheurs sont généralement d’accord, c’est que le philhellénisme, qui prit dans les... more S’il est un point sur lequel les chercheurs sont généralement d’accord, c’est que le philhellénisme, qui prit dans les années 1820 la forme d’un vaste courant de sympathie à la cause de libération grecque, fut l’une des premières manifestations de l’opinion publique à une échelle véritablement européenne. Ce n’est que tout récemment que des questions ont surgi quant à l’ampleur réelle du phénomène et quant à son impact effectif sur le cours des événements politico-militaires. L’existence, longtemps méconnue en Occident, d’un philhellénisme oriental à la fois russe et balkanique, vient compliquer l’image d’un mouvement beaucoup plus complexe et moins unilatéral qu’on ne l’a longtemps cru, où se mêlent aspects culturels et politiques, préoccupations humanitaires et visées économiques.

L’insurrection grecque de 1821 suscita naturellement l’enthousiasme des milieux libéraux européens, encore opprimés par la politique réactionnaire de la Sainte-Alliance. Ce lien entre le philhellénisme et le libéralisme fut accrédité presque unanimement par l’historiographie européenne, et cela jusqu’à nos jours. A l’encontre de cet avis largement répandu, notre contribution vise à montrer qu’il a existé également un philhellénisme conservateur qui s’est manifesté dans des cercles légitimistes occidentaux, russes ou balkaniques de l’époque. Des penseurs comme Alexandre Stourdza, bras droit du comte Capodistrias, ont tenté de concilier leurs sympathies philhellènes avec des positions favorables à la Sainte-Alliance.

Basée sur de multiples documents inédits tirés des archives russes et ukrainiennes, cette analyse interprète le philhellénisme dans le contexte de l’Europe de la Restauration. Elle s’attache également à en faire ressortir les composantes politiques, diplomatiques et religieuses.


Bibliographie sélective :

- Stella GHERVAS, "Alexandre Stourdza (1791-1854). Un intellectuel orthodoxe face à l’Occident", Genève, Ed. Suzanne Hurter, 1999.

- Stella GHERVAS, «Alexandru Sturza ou la quête de l’espace orthodoxe», "Bulletin de l’Association internationale d’études du sud-est européen", n° 31, 2001, pp. 53-60.

- Stella GHERVAS, «Alexandre Stourdza sur la scène européenne: autopsie d'un échec», "Revue Roumaine d'Histoire", t. XXXIX, n° 1-4, 2000, pp. 107-148.

Teoria nostratyczna i szkoła moskiewska

by Marek Stachowski

(= The Nostratic Theory and the Moscow School).

The Nostratic Theory, the main directions of its evolution and the Moscow School of Comparative Linguistics are critically presented in this study under the following headings: 1. Preliminaries; 2. Beginnings and Holger Pedersen; 3. Three binary hypotheses; 4. The Moscow School; 5. Reception in Europe; 6. Conclusion. -- The aim of the present author is not only to show the main lines of the evolution of Nostratics but also to formulate what he personally views as its most characteristic features – now and in the past – and to suggest what questions inevitably have to be answered if some kind of future cooperation of Moscow Nostraticists with non-Nostratic diachronic comparativists is to come into being and take root.

Beiträge zur affixalen Wortbildung westeuropäischer Lehnwörter im Osmanisch-Türkischen

by Marek Stachowski

Constitutionalizing Governing and Governance in Europe

by Poul F. Kjaer

Comparative Sociology, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 86-119, 2010

The EU is a structure positioned “in-between” hierarchically organized nation-state governing structures and... more The EU is a structure positioned “in-between” hierarchically organized nation-state governing structures and heterarchically structured global governance structures. Thus, the EU is a hybrid which relies partly on governing and partly on governance. This two-dimensionality is a central reason why the question of the constitutional character of the EU remains fundamentally unresolved. Thus, it is proposed that the EU should aim for developing a constitutional form aimed at alleviating the tensions inherent in the European construction through a conflict of laws approach. In order to respect the hybridity of the Union, such an approach, however, will have to be based on a three-dimensional conflict of laws concept. It would have to take account of horizontal conflicts between territorial units, vertical conflicts between the EU and its member states, and also horizontal conflicts between the functionally differentiated structures of the wider society.

" Orientalismo" E Oltre, Di Edward Said

by Cristiana Facchini

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962). Essai sur son vécu et sa représentation de l’Europe.

by Bertrand Levy

In : Metabasis.it, Revue internationale de philosophie en ligne, mai 2008, an III, no 5, pp. 1-25.

Résumé : Hermann Hesse est aujourd’hui considéré comme l’un des auteurs les plus « globalisés » du XXe siècle. Le... more Résumé : Hermann Hesse est aujourd’hui considéré comme l’un des auteurs les plus « globalisés » du XXe siècle. Le tirage total de son œuvre a largement dépassé les 100 millions d’exemplaires et il a été traduit en une cinquantaine de langues. Pourtant, il fut un écrivain très enraciné dans son monde européen, très influencé par son espace vécu qui s’étendait du Sud de l’Allemagne à l’Italie Centrale, à l’exception de son périple en « Inde ». Hermann Hesse ne s’est pas contenté d’explorer les cultures européennes pour façonner son image du monde : il a beaucoup puisé aux sources indiennes et chinoises anciennes, ce qui a contribué à l’universalité de son message. Nous examinons ici sa place et son attitude par rapport aux littératures européennes, puis nous développons spécialement le rôle de ses voyages en Italie dans la genèse de son œuvre.

Mots clé : Hermann Hesse, Europe, Italie, voyages, représentation, paysage

Romanian Perspectives Regarding the Inter-war Plans of Creating a “Danubian Confederation”. Toward a European Danube Strategy avant la lettre

by Mihai Sebe

Published in Working Papers Series, European Institute of Romania. December 2011

The purpose of the current paper is to undergo a synthetic examination of the evolution of the Danube issue in... more The purpose of the current paper is to undergo a synthetic examination of the evolution of the Danube issue in inter-war Romania, to realise a synthetic presentation of the Romanian intellectual currents and evolutions, of a history of the plans for a Danubian organisation in the inter-war political and intellectual environment. The paper highlights the preoccupation of the Romanian elites concerning the evolutions on the European scene, by offering solutions and analysing from a scholarly perspective the envisaged propositions.
The Romanian conception on the Danube area is characterised by the importance granted to the political aspect – equality of the riparian states, regulation of the regime of navigation, etc. We are dealing with a qualitative evolution that goes from a purely defensive reaction, of denial of the initial plans of Danubian regulation towards a proactive attitude, based upon solving issues and offering plans for organisation.

Review on Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe

by Tamás Scheibner

Gerberto e la mathesis catalana,in “Archivum Bobiense” 32 (2010), pp. 299-324

by Marta Materni

"La Geometria Gerberti: un manuale scolastico del X sec.", Euphrosyne, 27 (2009), pp. 364-373

by Marta Materni

"Attività scientifiche di Gerberto d'Aurillac", Archivum Bobiense, XXIX (2007), pp. 225-317

by Marta Materni

Carnivals and Dreams; Pieter Bruegel and the History of the Imagination.

by Louise Milne

Madame Guizot and Monsieur Guizot: Domestic Pedagogy and the Post-Revolutionary Order in France, 1807-1830

by Robin Bates

published in 'Modern Intellectual History' 8 (1), April 2011: 31-59

Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Chains of Modernity

by Varad Mehta

Presented to the Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2008

This paper examines Rousseau’s use of the Spartan legend in his quest to rescue Europe from modernity, particularly in... more This paper examines Rousseau’s use of the Spartan legend in his quest to rescue Europe from modernity, particularly in the First Discourse, the Letter to D’Alembert, and the Government of Poland. The Enlightenment marked the advent of modernity, yet it is replete with homages to classical antiquity. These competing impulses pervade Rousseau’s thought. He repeatedly expresses his preference for the anti-commercial mores, anti-individualistic political forms, and social cohesion and solidarity of antiquity. He especially admires Sparta, which he depicts as the antithesis of modern European civilization. Rousseau’s conception of the latter is firmly within the Enlightened mainstream: it is characterized by the development of the arts and sciences, the rise of commerce, the elevation of the individual over society, nascent secularism, the dominance of great territorial states, etc. Whereas his counterparts mostly welcomed these transformations, Rousseau consistently repudiated the malign influence of progress, which he believed perverted human nature. Hence his recourse to Sparta, where society and individual were in accord and the general will flowed through every citizen’s breast. By defining Sparta as everything modernity was not, he also defined modernity as everything Sparta was not. Rousseau’s task was to deflect the future from its present course, which he believed was leading to disaster. Yet contesting this terrain actually confirmed his place within modernity and the Enlightenment, for these were concerned primarily with the future, just as he was. Hence, ironically, in his quest to remove them Rousseau ultimately became himself ensnared in the chains of modernity.

‘The Stone is Everything’: Sparta and the Individual from Enlightenment to Revolution

by Varad Mehta

Presented to the East-Central American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2008

This paper explores the use of the Spartan ideal in eighteenth-century debates about the relationship between society... more This paper explores the use of the Spartan ideal in eighteenth-century debates about the relationship between society and the individual. One of the most important political legacies of the Enlightenment, both in philosophical and in practical terms, was the reorientation of this relationship to place the needs of the individual above those of society. While by no means total, the consequences of the two great Revolutions at the end of the century confirmed this development. Because it was a reversal of a nearly two-millennia-old consensus that society should take precedence over the individual, it was profoundly controversial. Proponents and opponents alike turned to history to justify their stances. One historical example used again and again was ancient Sparta, represented by both sides as the embodiment of a polity in which the individual was subsumed within society. Those who upheld Sparta as a viable model for this relationship in the eighteenth century provoked a furious reaction from those who rejected it as incompatible with modern European civilization. These competing visions received their canonical form in Benjamin Constant’s distinction between ancient and modern liberty. Constant’s rejection of ancient liberty and its Spartan synecdoche, however, was but the culmination of a century-long debate about the plausibility and desirability of using ancient Sparta as a model for defining the relationship between society and individual in contemporary Europe. In this paper I will follow the trajectory of this controversy from the Enlightenment through the revolutionary period, as manifested in the writings of Montesquieu, Rousseau, Sieyès, Constant, Ferguson, Hume, Priestley, and others, to delineate the process by which the Spartan ideal was delegitimized in order to secure the individual’s triumph over society.

"Regimes of Education" precis

by Robin Bates

'Nietzsche's Goethe: In Sickness and in Health', Publications of the English Goethe Society, 77 (2008), 113–124.

by Nick Martin

Originally presented as an invited paper to the English Goethe Society, April 2007.