"Europe" as Utopia: Causes of Its Decline
Karl Heinz Bohrer|Ciaran Cronin
The inhabitants of the European continent thought and acted as Europeans long before they spoke themselves Europeans. Talk unity is relatively recent in historical terms, even though it has been practiced since Renaissance, indeed early Middle Ages. Whether we think communion Christian churches universities, rediscovery Greek art literature or, finally, taken-for-granted social intercourse among elites, national differences only played a subordinate role this commonality. Montaigne's Journals (ca. 1580), Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle's Conversations on Plurality Worlds (1686), Edward Gibbon's History Decline Fall Roman Empire (1776-1789), Herder's Another Philosophy for Education Mankind (1774), Goethe's Italian Journey (1786-88)—to mention these extremely diverse but highly emblematic texts documenting experience—provide most eloquent testimony an awareness civilization, not to dialogue leading philosophers eighteenth century or grand tours scions upper classes.
New Literary History