GRAND AND SMALL EUROPEAN STORIES
A Dissertation on Our Postmodern Europe

The dissertation represents a study in the philosophy of culture and history as well as the history of ideas. Its main thesis is that the postmodern culture is a condition for European integration in general and for a Finnish membership in the European Union in particular. By postmodern culture is here primarily understood, following the definition given by Jean-François Lyotard in La condition postmoderne, a culture characterised by disbelief in "grand narratives" or in a philosophy of history. The notions 'grand narrative' and 'postmodern' are however ambiguous concepts. A great part of the dissertation is, in fact, devoted to an analytical and a historical study of these concepts. The dissertation applies postmodern hermeneutical and perspectivistic methodologies.

Continue