Presentation
The history of the European peoples and nations is so interwoven throughout the centuries that it is impossible to understand through isolated elements. Even during the worst historical conflicts, common traits of culture and civilisation were not forgotten: philosophy, law, the arts, manners, the rules of war …
The national histories, independently of the common European dimension, make no sense in our era. Not only do they fan the flames of individualism and give new wings to nationalism, but they falsify history and violate truth. The division of Europe will not reach a definitive end until its citizens correctly comprehend what it is that unites them.
¿Is Europe «a mental space» as Cees Nooteboom declares? ¿Or it can be reduced to the history of their population? Nuture or Culture? In Euromind we are convinced that both perspectives will contribute to a better understanding of the european reality. That’s the reason why we have invited to talk to our seminar the scientic journalist Karin Bojs and the humanist A C Grayling. They will accompany us through this trip towards the european history.
Programme
114.30 Presentation by Teresa Giménez Barbat MEP
14.05 A. C. Grayling: A Common History
14.45 Karin Bojs: DNA Threads to the Origins of Europe
15.30 Q & A
15.55 Conclusions
Karin Bojs is a Swedish scientific journalist, author of My European Family, a book in which she reviews the history of humans who have populated Europe from a biological point of view.
Professor A C Grayling is an English philosopher and humanist. He is founder of the New College of Humanities in London. He has written more than 30 books such as The age of genius: the seventeenth century and the birth of the modern era.
