Conferences

Previous

1. ”La limite et l’illimité” (Institute finlandaise, Paris, 15-16 January, 2010)
2. ”Contact Points: Questions for Jean-Luc Nancy” (University of Helsinki, Collegium for  Advanced Studies, 13 April, 2010) in cooperation with the research project “Figures of  Touch” (Academy of Finland).
3. ”Jacques Rancière’s politics” (University of Helsinki, Collegium for Advanced Studies, 24 May  2010) in cooperation with Tutkijaliitto
4. ”The Politics of World Community” (the 7th Pan-European International Relations  Conference, Stockholm, 9-11 September, 2010) in cooperation with Jens Bartelson  (University of Lund)
5. ”The Future of Political Community: Beyond Universalism and Particularism”University  of Helsinki, 10-11 December, 2010.

Forthcoming

Transcending Europe

A conference organised by the University of Helsinki Network for European Studies project “Rethinking Cultural Diversity in Europe”

Date: 12. – 13. april 2012. Place: University of Helsinki

Europe is not a universal political, cultural or geographic entity – and nevertheless it is the proper name of a project of universality. As a historical project, Europe is very conscious of the limits of its ambition of universality. The paradox of such a limited universality has recently been adressed in philosophy in particular by Denis Guénoun (Hypothèses sur l’Europe : un essai de philosophie, presently being translated into English) and Rodolphe Gasché (Europe, or the Infinite task. A Study of a Philosophical Concept). They help us to see how Europe is also a philosophical concept, idea, or figure; a kind of a singular universal which is not to be understood as a model, that could be used as a source of identification, but rather as a hypothetical, regulative or a virtual principle that has also ethical and political dimensions. Put in this way, the idea of Europe is not a particular surreptitiously imposing itself as a global universal framework of thought, but a desire of universality that can only be realised as a constant self-transgression and openness towards what is other to it.

The conference Transcending Europe looks for new philosophical articulations of European universality, its way of being supranational without being global and of being ideal without being merely cultural.

The keynote speakers of the conference are Rodolphe Gasché and Denis Guénoun.