Conference

Nexus Conference 2008 -

14 June 2008
09.30 – 18.00
Passenger Terminal, Amsterdam

Identity Please!

Who are we, and who do we want to be? What makes us into a society? Can we make do, must we make do with only political and social values, or do we also need cultural values to determine our identity? If we do, what values are these, and what significance do they have for life in a multicultural society? What is still specifically European about European humanism in such a society? Why does our identity seem to be continually shrinking (limiting itself to nation, family, group) instead of expanding (making us Europeans, world citizens)? And what role can be assigned to religious values in a secular society? Should minorities be allowed to publicly live out the teachings of their religions? What future is there for a Europe without a European spirit?

Speakers

France, 1929 - 2020

George Steiner

cultural philosopher

United States, 1952

Francis Fukuyama

political theorist

Italy, 1945

Daniela Bini

expert on nineteenth-century Italian literature
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United States

David Dubal

piano expert, teacher at Juilliard
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Canada, 1947

Michael Ignatieff

politician, intellectual and moral philosopher
Jonathan Israel

United Kingdom, 1946

Jonathan Israel

Enlightenment historian
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United States, 1941

Allan Janik

at home in Wittgenstein’s Vienna

France, 1940

Gabriel Josipovici

British writer and academic
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United States, 1952

Paul W. Kahn

professor of law and humanities at Yale
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United States, 1930

Lewis Lockwood

musicologist, Beethoven expert

United Kingdom, 1942

Nicholas Mann

involved with the intellectual life of Europe as a writer and a policy maker
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Israel, 1939

Avishai Margalit

Israeli philosopher and author The Ethics of Memory

Austria, 1929

Peter Pulzer

historian and political theorist
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United States

Sarah Rothenberg

pianist, writes on music and culture
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United Kingdom, 1944 - 2020

Roger Scruton

conservative philosopher and art expert

Syria, 1944

Bassam Tibi

philosopher and political theorist

Romania, 1951

Vladimir Tismaneanu

political theorist

United States, 1948

Adam Zamoyski

historian of Poland and Europe
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Poland, 1945 - 2021

Adam Zagajewski

poet and essayist