Exercising the European essence: from epistemology to ethics

European culture is founded on quite a precise epistemological structure, i.e., the radicalisation of the intellectual exercises of analysis and, moreover, abstraction and idealisation. The epistemological structure of European culture determines how Europeans speak and act. The chapter aims at using philosophical tools to provide the reader with at least some insights to try to identify the founding epistemological reasons why, as Europeans, we deal with ethical and political issues in quite a special way, hoping to contribute to the interdisciplinary topic of the volume, which is so urgent now, having to do with the definition of European identity itself. The role of my contribution in such a volume is quite precise: providing the reader with at least some insights (given its necessarily limited length) to try to identify the most essential epistemological cornerstones that found European culture itself, since the special way of dealing with epistemological issues determines the equally special way of dealing with ethical and political issues (as I shall try to show) - and ethical and political issues are the core of such a volume. Thus, I shall use philosophical tools as my contribution to the other disciplines that constitute the volume, hoping to work promisingly, all together, on an actually interdisciplinary topic, which is so urgent now, such as the images of Europe, i.e., the definition of its own identity.