Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Home
Hostname: page-component-ffbbcc459-nq5v5 Total loading time: 0.321 Render date: 2022-03-23T13:13:43.066Z Has data issue: true Feature Flags: { "shouldUseShareProductTool": true, "shouldUseHypothesis": true, "isUnsiloEnabled": true, "useRatesEcommerce": false, "useNewApi": true }

2 - Some Europes in Their History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2009

J. G. A. Pocock
Affiliation:
Professor Emeritus Johns Hopkins University
Anthony Pagden
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University
Get access

Summary

I shall try to give some answers to the questions “What is Europe?” or rather “What do we mean by Europe?” The second question implies that “Europe” is something we have invented, and there is a habit at present of putting the words “the invention of” before the name of anything we want to discuss. This implies that there is nothing to discuss except the reasons, very likely discreditable, that have led others to invent whatever it is and impose their construction upon us, so that the point of discussion is to liberate ourselves from the construction by subverting the dominant paradigm, as the bumper stickers urge us to do. This is, of course, a very healthy skepticism, and I intend to adopt it in this essay. I do, in fact, perceive that a construction called “Europe” is being invented and imposed upon me in language that suggests that I must accept it without asking too many questions about what exactly it is, and I am very skeptical about the motives with which this is being done. I like to characterize myself as a Euroskeptic, in the proper sense of the term; meaning that I am skeptical, indeed, about the use of “Euroskeptic” to denote that sort of person. Why is it being suggested that we cannot be a skeptic about Europe without being a fanatical opponent?

Type
Chapter
Information
The Idea of Europe
From Antiquity to the European Union
, pp. 55 - 71
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)
27
Cited by

Send book to Kindle

To send this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle.

Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Send book to Dropbox

To send content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about sending content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Send book to Google Drive

To send content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about sending content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×