European Nihilism and the Meaning of the European Idea: A Study of Nietzsche’s ‘Good Europeanism’ in Response to the Debate in the Post-Cold War Era Stefan Heinz Edward ELBE Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Ph.D. Department of International Relations London School of Economics and Political Science University of London 2001 UMI Number: U615465 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615465 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 7 53u<+ THESIS ABSTRACT One of the novel aspects of the European debate in the post-Cold War era is the deliberate attempt by scholars and policy-makers to articulate a more meaningful idea of Europe. Such an idea, it is hoped, would enhance the legitimacy of the European Union and could provide the basis for a European identity capable of mitigating against the rise of nationalist and racist violence in Europe. After more than a decade, however, a compelling vision of Europe that would fulfil these aspirations is still widely deemed to be lacking. The question that arises, therefore, is why, in fact, it is proving so difficult to articulate a more meaningful idea of Europe in the post-Cold War era, and how, concomitantly, this difficulty might be addressed. In response to this question, the present thesis offers a detailed analysis of the largely unexplored European thought advanced by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche towards the end of the nineteenth century. For, the thesis argues, Nietzsche’s thinking about Europe can still significantly illuminate our understanding of the current impasse by contextualising the latter within the larger problem of European nihilism, or meaninglessness, resident in the cultural configuration of European modernity. On the basis of this understanding, moreover, the thesis subsequently turns towards a consideration of Nietzsche’s own idea of the ‘good European’ which he developed in response to the experience of meaninglessness in modem European culture. This idea of what it means to be a ‘good European,’ the thesis concludes, can assist contemporary scholars of European affairs in delineating a response to the current impasse which neither posits an essentialist idea of Europe, nor falls back onto a technical and functional approach to European governance. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION: THE MEANING OF EUROPE............................................................................... 6 1. T h e L e g it im a c y o f t h e E u r o p e a n U n i o n ..........................................................................................................8 2. T h e D e s ir e f o r a E u r o p e a n C o m m u n it y .........................................................................................................11 4. T h e E u r o p e a n Im a g in a t io n in C r isis ? .............................................................................................................15 5. N ie t z s c h e ’s E u r o p e a n T h o u g h t .........................................................................................................................22 2. ‘GOD OR NOTHINGNESS ?’ NIETZSCHE’S DISCUSSION OF EUROPEAN NIHILISM. 28 1. T h e H is t o r ic a l C o n t e x t o f N ie t z s c h e ’s C o r p u s ......................................................................................30 2. T h e ‘D e a t h o f G o d ’ ....................................................................................................................................................33 3. T h e ‘M eaninglessness ’ o f M o d e r n Sc ie n c e ................................................................................................40 4. M o d e r n S c ie n c e a n d t h e W il l t o T r u t h....................................................................................................... 43 5. E u r o p e a n N ih il ism a n d E u r o p e’s ‘C h r is t ia n -P l a t o n ic ’ H e r it a g e .................................................50 6. E u r o p e a n N ih ilism a n d t h e E u r o p e a n D e b a t e ...........................................................................................56 3. EUROPEAN NIHILISM AND ANNIHILATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY...................62 1. N ie t z s c h e , N ih il ism a n d A nnihilation ........................................................................................................... 64 2. E u r o p e a n N ih il ism a n d t h e F ir st W o r l d W a r ...........................................................................................69 3. E u r o p e a n N ih il ism a n d t h e S e c o n d W o r l d W a r ..................................................................................... 76 4. E u r o p e a n N ih il ism a n d t h e C o l d W a r ........................................................................................................... 85 4. THE EUROPEAN DEBATE REVISITED............................................................................................... 94 1. T h e ‘E n d o f I d e o l o g y ’ ............................................................................................................................................. 96 2. C ontemporary E u r o pe a n N ih il is m .................................................................................................................101 3. ‘In c o m p l e t e ’ N ih il ism a n d t h e E u r o p e a n D e b a t e .................................................................................110 3 5. ‘LABYRINTHS OF THE FUTURE* : NIETZSCHE’S CRITIQUE OF A NATIONALIST RESPONSE TO EUROPEAN NIHILISM .......................................................................................... 123 1. N ie t z s c h e , N ih il ism a n d N a t io n a l is m .......................................................................... 126 2. N ih il ism a n d t h e A p p e a l o f N a t io n a l is m ................................................................................................... 132 3. N ih il ism a n d t h e A d v o c a t e s o f N a t io n a l is m ......................................................................................... 140 6. EUROPEAN NIHILISM AND THE EUROPEAN UNION .............................................................. 154 1. N ie t z s c h e , t h e ‘G o o d E u r o p e a n ’ ....................................................................................................................155 2. N ih il ism a n d t h e A p p e a l o f ‘E u r o p e’............................................................................................................ 161 3. N ih il ism a n d t h e A d v o c a t e s o f E u r o p e a n U n i o n ..................................................................................167 4. E u r o p e a n N ih il is m a n d t h e E u r o p e a n U n i o n ...........................................................................................175 7. “WE GOOD EUROPEANS ...”................................................................................................................184 1. C o m p l e t e N ih il is m ....................................................................................................................................................186 2. N ie t z s c h e - A N ih il is t ? ........................................................................................................................................ 190 3. E u r o p e’s P a s s iv e N ih il is m ...................................................................................................................................200 4. T h e A c t iv e N ih il ism o f N ie t z s c h e ’s ‘G o o d E u r o p e a n s ’.....................................................................206 8. CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................................... 216 BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................................................................. 233 4 In a word - and it should be our word of honour! - we aregood Europeans , Europe’s heirs, the rich, superabundant, but also abundantly obligated heirs o f two millennia o f the European spirit.... - Friedrich Nietzsche (1886)1 [I]t is necessary to make ourselves the guardians of an idea o f Europe but of a Europe that consists precisely in not closing itself off in its own identity and in advancing itself in an exemplary way toward what it is not, toward the other heading or the heading o f the other, indeed - and this is perhaps something else altogether - toward the other o f the heading, which would be the beyond of this modem tradition, another border structure, another shore. - Jacques Derrida (1992)2 A guest, the most ‘unheimlich’ o f all, the most disturbing because the most familiar (and the least known), is standing at the door: nihilism.