Abstract

This article is inspired by Joachim Ritter’s interpretation of the concept of “division” in Hegel and by a recent article by Slavoj Zizek on Turkey and the West to develop some considerations on the problem of European identity. Both Ritter, in the writings that follow his stay in Turkey , and Zizek, invite Europeans to look at Turkey not as an alleged “other” but as another “equal”, also from a cultural point of view. In this way, however, the division of Europe in respect to the other from itself is maintained, as the other is accepted only through assimilation: European identity globalizes and is globalized. On the contrary, as the Author argues, the identity of Europe is not the rooting in a religious tradition, and not even rationalism and technique, but must be an identity-in-the-world, a being-in-one-among-with-the-others