Postdoc Research residency THINKING EUROPE in Paris

Call for proposals
Research residency Thinking Europe
Theme : Concepts of " Europe " and Places of the Concept

The Collège international de philosophie (CIPh) and the Fondation de lʼAllemagneMaison Heinrich Heine (MHH) have created an annual research residency entitled "Thinking Europe” in 2018. For its second year, the theme of the residency is "Concepts of "Europe" and Places of the Concept" (cf. description of the Project). The selected applicant will have to develop this theme

Candidacy Requirements

- postdoctoral researcher Junior or senior)

- duration : 2-3 months between May 1st and October 31st, 2019

- No nationality, age or academic discipline criteria

- Housing unit provided at the Maison Heinrich Heine at the Cité international universitaire de Paris

- Plane tickets will be paid by the Collège international de philosophie

- At the end of her/his residency, the successful candidate will have to give a conference at the MHH about her/his research project

How to apply :

The application is to be sent on 28 February 2019 at the latest by email at this address : residence-mhh-ciph@ciph.org.The accepted languages are English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and ltalian. The results will be communicated late March 2019. The application must include : a CV, a letter of motivation (2 pages max.), a research project in connection with the theme of the residency (5000 signs max. included spaces) as well as a PHD certification.

Description of the Project :

Thinking Europe:

Concepts of “Europe” and Places of the Concept

Is it possible to raise the question of Europe other than in political terms? This is what Patočka suggests in a private seminar in 1973: “We constantly speak of Europe in a political sense, yet we neglect to question its precise nature and that from which it arises. We hear talk of the integration of Europe. But is Europe something that can be integrated? Is it a geographical or political concept? No, and if we wish to raise the question of our present situation, it is necessary for us to understand that Europe is a concept which rests on spiritual foundations.” Derrida in his final public intervention (“Je suis en guerre contre moi-même”, Le Monde, August 18th, 2004) raises a similar observation: “Europe is under the obligation to assume a new responsibility. I am not speaking of the European community as it exists or takes shape in the current majority (neoliberal) and is virtually threatened by as many internal wars, but of a Europe to come, which must define itself. And this in Europe (“geographical”) as elsewhere. What we algebraically name “Europe” has responsibilities to assume for the future of humanity, for international law – I place in this my faith, my belief.” What concepts, then, for a Europe to come? Amidst institutional, migratory and economic crisis, to reflect upon Europe has become an urgent necessity. Can we rethink the concept of Europe? How could we mobilize philosophical thought in order to consider a Europe to come?

“One of the most urgent problems that Europe raises is language” wrote Barbara Cassin ten years ago in the foreword of the collective work, Vocabulaire européen de la philosophie (European Vocabulary of Philosophy). “To think in languages” in terms of translation, treason, interpretation and the adaptation of concepts carried by  “untranslatable” words remains essential to philosophic of the continent and its circumference. Indeed, the dialogue and the quarrel between languages has long characterized the history of philosophy in Europe; important to this history are the quarrels between “national philosophies”. Let us consider, as an example, the famous quarrel between Kant and Constant on lying, an exchange between two philosophers that was to be interpreted as a philosophic dispute between France and Germany.

And what of today? Are linguistic differences abolished themselves by a globalized language, this English from nowhere and of everywhere? Do disputes between schools or traditions disappear in a mutual ignorance of the other? (As can be witnessed by the more or less mutually ignorant worlds that make up analytical and “continental” philosophy). Could now be the opportune moment for the “Differend” (Lyotard), to return to what resists in the passage from one language to another, to think of the hiatus between one tradition and the other? And this not only in the European sphere and its continuities in North America, but outside the Western Philosophical Tradition in Africa, the Middle East and Asia?

For all further information : https://www.maison-heinrich-heine.org/a-propos/residence-de-recherche/

Call for proposals : https://www.maison-heinrich-heine.org/IMG/pdf/residence_de_recherche_pe…