Ethics of Transitions

Inter-section 3The Other Europes

It is not known why Aristotle’s founding work in ethics – which established the ethics quest as a field of investigation as such, as we have seen – is entitled Ēthika Nikomacheia, the “Ethics to Nicomachus”. We have drawn the docking lines for the term Ethics. But there are several hypotheses about the designation to Nicomachus. Perhaps Aristotle referred to his children; one of his sons was named Nicomachus. Perhaps it was a tribute to his father; that was also his name. Nicomachus. Or perhaps it is a reference to the person who constituted Aristotle’s teachings in the form of a book.

We do not know why this song is entitled “Ethics to Europe”¹. Perhaps it is in reference to the Europe that brought us here. Perhaps it is in reference to the Europe that is coming². The other Europe, the Europe to imagine, to invent, to share, to build, to live together. That which is to be built and that which to build it with. The mythical figure and the myth to be reinvented. The ways in which the past is present to us. History sources. Europe is always already other and plural.

Where are the others? It could be a matter of staying in the myth. It could be a matter of retracing the matricial threads, exorcizing and reinvesting this founding story. It could be a matter of elsewhere: thinking of the other Europes, the Europes that are other, those that one ...