What It Means to Be European
The four threads, at the end
- Total war and political instability gave way to a polarised state order during the Cold War and eventually to efforts at transnational union.
- Economic collapse and total war created conflicting conceptions of the relationship between the individual and the state.
- Movements questioned objective knowledge, reason's ability to arrive at truth, and religion's role in determining moral standards — and demographic changes... altered the experiences of everyday life.
Belonging acquired a second level because EU members...
A person may belong twice, and the two claims can pull apart.
Belonging acquired a second level
- 9.10 says member nations continue to balance questions of national sovereignty with the responsibilities of membership.
- That is a new answer to 7.2's question about national loyalty: a person may belong twice, and the two claims can pull apart.
- So being European is described by the CED as an unresolved relationship, not a settled identity.
Select all the developments that changed who counts as European.
Vienna belongs to unit 5.
And who counts as European changed
- 9.11: immigration altered Europe's religious makeup, causing debate and conflict over the role of religion in social and political life.
- 9.9: decolonisation ended the arrangement under which Europe defined itself partly against its colonies.
- 9.7: the EU was enlarged through the admission of former Eastern bloc countries, so the map of who is inside changed too.
The state order, who belongs, or what stays open?
Sort each statement about the century's legacy.
The knowledge thread ends unresolved in the CED's own account.
Questions that eluded consensus; postmodernism, not a new certainty.
The CED ends in open questions, and that is the answer. Medical and moral questions eluded consensus, religion continued to play a role despite secularism, and EU members continue to balance sovereignty against membership — a course ending in unresolved matters is describing a present, not delivering a conclusion.
A course ending in open questions is describing a ____, not a conclusion.
And saying so is the correct final move.
What the century did not settle
- The knowledge thread ends unresolved: 9.12's questions eluded consensus, and 9.14 names postmodernism rather than a new certainty.
- Religion continued to play a role despite secularism, so that argument is open too.
- A course that ends in open questions is describing a present, not a conclusion — and saying so is the correct final move.
The method for this last objective is to name a challenge, name what it changed about belonging, and...
Three times — state order, identity, knowledge.
Writing the last objective
- The objective is how the challenges of the 20th century influenced what it means to be European.
- Name a challenge, name what it changed about belonging, and say whether the CED treats the matter as settled.
- Do that three times — for the state order, for identity, and for knowledge — and the course has an ending.
Ask what a continent has settled in a hundred years and the honest list is short: who may rule by force, and what a war costs. Ask what it has left open and the list is longer, and every item on it is still being argued about by people alive now.
By the present, total war gave way to a polarised order and then to efforts at transnational union; belonging acquired a second level, since EU members continue to balance national sovereignty with the responsibilities of membership; who counts as European changed through decolonisation, immigration, and enlargement; and the knowledge thread ends open — questions that eluded consensus, religion that continued to play a role despite secularism. A course ending in open questions is describing a present.