Ethical and Theological Approaches to the Value Discourses in Europe

Abstract

AbstractThe chapter first identifies those issues that arise when an ethical concept of value is transferred from the individual to a political community. It then argues that European values should be understood as political values associated with Europe as an ‘imagined community’. Based on a discourse history of European values in the context of European integration in the twentieth century, the historical-political process in which value semantics prevailed over other identity-related expressions is established. European values and the understanding of the European Union, it can be shown, are to be understood as the solution to a political problem, namely how the EU can function as a democracy without being a state in its own right. European values thus fulfil a certain fundamental political function, which can be more precisely characterised as a bridging function between the different historical experiences and cultural imprints of the European communities. The ethical implications of this function of values are then discussed, with the tension between universality and particularity playing a central role. The chapter concludes with reflections on the current challenges facing European values and, with them, democracy in Europe.