ABSTRACT

It is extremely debatable to conclude from the existence of common cultural or scientific traditions that Europe is a cultural unit, that we can speak of a European culture. Even from a historical point of view, the frontier between Rome and Byzantium or the opposition between Reformation and Counter-Reformation countries are as important or even more important in European cultural history than the influence of Christianity, or of modern rationalism, or of revolutionary social and political movements in all European countries. The myth of a culturally unified Europe refers to a period prior to the Industrial Revolution and the development of national states. I am not implying by these elementary remarks that Europe is not a meaningful cultural, social or political ensemble, but that it is necessary not to take it for granted and to analyse seriously the definition of ourselves as Europeans and, more concretely, as European sociologists, and to compare it with more usual definitions of ourselves as members of the international sociological community - that is, members of a profession; members of national academic, scientific or professional organizations; and, finally, as members of a school or intellectual tradition.