“These are questions that are on my mind for a long time: what is Europe? Is Europe just a place, a continent, or is Europe an idea? If so, what idea? In other words: can Europe be separated from universal humanism? The latter is of course a pleonasm, but in practice national humanism pops up all the time, and if that sounds a bit unpleasant, we can also call it regional humanism.”

An essay about the beautiful but also troublesome idea of universal brotherhood and the philosopher Th.C.W. Oudemans has been published in de Volkskrant) and in Magasinet Europa (Denmark).