Europa: problema di una identità fra questioni antiche e contraddizioni contemporanee

Europe: problem of an identity between ancient issues and contemporary contradictions

Abstract

Europe bears an identity whose nature can be examined from both an historical and a geo-political point of view. It is therefore necessary to question some of the qualities that characterize its identity in time and space. To locate such identity, we need to focus on some of the characteristics that have marked its history: the Logos, the individual, history, law, secularism, science, the rule of law and welfare state. Europe, placed in the current world, characterized by complexity and speed, assumes a different identity, in which all the traits identified above are beginning to operate in a way which paradoxically move away from the original features of its history. In this sense, it could be said that Europe today is subjected to a severe test of identity.