Epoch of Universalism 1769-1989 / L'epoque de l'universalisme 1769-1989

The current year will be characterized by the 30th anniversary of the German unification. But the remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall coincides with another event of worldwide importance that finds much less attention: Napoléon Bonaparte's 250th anniversary. However, the historical-philosophical dimension of the coexistence of these two circumstances cannot be neglected: Napoléon's appearance on the scene of world history marks the victory of European Universalism (very soon in the form of a 'modern' Imperial project); and some intellectuals, as Francis Fukuyama, thought that 1989 would have signified its historical fulfilment. Today, we see more clearly that the fall of the Wall stands for an epistemic earthquake which the Parisian philosopher Lionel Ruffel has called the "brouhaha" of a world that can be grasped no more through universal concepts. Here we deal with the idea of Europe and of its relation to the world itself. Picking up this contingency of world history with an ironic wink, the volume seeks to analyse in the aftermath the epoch of European Universalism, focussing on its dialectics which are polemically addressed together remembering 1769/1989.