Political Space Philosophies in the History of the Political Thoughts of the Western European Universalism and the European Union

Political Space Philosophies in the History of the Political Thoughts of the Western European Universalism and the European Union

DEMIREL, Idiris
GUL, Huseyin

There exist certain historical premises and foundations thought to render the idiosyncratic structure of the European/western civilization possible. One of the most important domain related to these foundations and premises is the political -space philosophy along with the European Universalism that stemmed from the European history of political roots. The political space centered on the Polis (city-state) in the ancient Greek political sphere is replaced the "world state" thought of the Cynic and Stoic philosophers of the Ancient Hellenistic and Roman political spheres. The early Catholic Christian philosopher St. Augustine and the late Catholic philosopher St. Thomas converge to a great extent on a universalism and "world" domain while the Protestant politician is rather related to the modern nation state notion. The Dante of the late middle age and the early modernism had a more secular conception of universalism and "world state" in terms of political space. These Western approaches can be viewed in relation with the "European Universalism" framework set by the Wallerstein. The goal of this study is not to investigate the European Union or the process of Turkey's European Union membership per se. Rather, the goal is restricted to the investigation of the historical background of this phenomenon incorporating the European Universalism approach. Key Words: Political Thoughts, Political- space, West/Europe, World State, European Universalism, and European Union.

Article
PeerReviewed

ISSN 978-9958-834-23-3

International Burch University

2013-05-10

2333