Freedom. Peace. Democracy. Christianity. Art and culture. These are the keywords that come to mind for many people when they are asked to describe what Europe is all about. But finding the ‘essence of Europe’ is not that simple.

This is demonstrated by Dag Nikolaus Hasse, Professor of History of Philosophy at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg, in his book ‘What is European? On Overcoming Colonial and Romantic Modes of Thought’. The 137-page work was published in English by Amsterdam University Press on 4 September 2025. The book has also already been translated into Turkish.

How the Concept of Europe has Developed

In his book, Hasse questions widespread self-perceptions among Europeans. His motivation: "As a historian, I have felt increasingly uncomfortable for several years with the highly charged concept of Europe in current political discourse. For example, when there is talk of defending a “Christian Europe” or a “continent of enlightenment” against influences that are considered to be foreign to it. As a scholar, I therefore wanted to clarify how the concept of Europe has developed."

Europe did not always see itself as the centre of the world: in the Middle Ages, Asia was considered the best and most distinguished part of the world. That only changed around 1700. Gradually, a cultural concept of Europe became popular that described Europe as superior to all other continents: the view prevailed that it had the best forms of government, the best sciences and the best arts. And hadn't the European colonial powers demonstrated their superiority by bringing other continents under their rule?

‘This very arrogant idea of cultural superiority is still partly effective today, and we should free ourselves from it,’ says Dag Nikolaus Hasse.

Around 1700, the arts and sciences were flourishing not only in Europe, but also in Safavid Iran, Edo-period Japan and the Indian Mughal Empire, for example. Most of the so-called ideas of the Enlightenment were not exclusively European either: ‘When we talk about Europe as the birthplace of ideals such as freedom, equality and brotherhood, we are moving into the realm of clichés,’ says the Würzburg professor.

Greek Culture Did not Come Out of Nowhere

Europe, and ancient Greece in particular, as the cradle of democracy and science? That, too, is not accurate historically: ‘The impressive development of Greek culture is inconceivable without what existed before in Egypt and Mesopotamia and influenced Greece,’ says Hasse. Greek democracies are the result of long developments of early democratic structures in West Asia – such as regulated office allocation, city assemblies, elections and random selection by lots, for example in Assur in present-day Iraq.

The much-cited Christian Occident? It never existed in the medieval self-image. For many centuries, the largest cities in medieval Europe were Muslim Cordoba in southern Spain, with about 300,000 inhabitants, and Greek Orthodox Constantinople, with about half a million inhabitants. By comparison, Rome and Paris had a maximum of 30,000 inhabitants in the 12th century.

‘Cordoba and Constantinople were the only real cosmopolitan cities of European culture in the Middle Ages. These multi-ethnic cities do not belong on the margins, but at the centre of European history,’ argues Hasse.

Europe as a Network of Cultural Areas

The professor proposes that we broaden our perspective. When thinking about ‘Europe,’ it is helpful to remember that there have always been very diverse cultural and political practices that were interconnected both internally and externally. ‘These cultural networks were much more colourful and richer than what we recognize today with our mid-western European tunnel vision,’ Hasse emphasises.

An example: when it comes to 12th-century European architecture, with a focus on sacred buildings, most Europeans probably think exclusively of the emergence of the Gothic cathedral. But there was so much more: the wooden stave churches in Norway, mosque building in Granada, the second construction phase of the Erfurt synagogue, the white cathedral in Vladimir in Russia, and the fortified churches in Romania.

A Cultural Home for a Broad Spectrum of People

What does Dag Nikolaus Hasse wish for the future of Europe? In his book, he advocates an open conception of Europe that reflects its long history of multi-ethnic cities, offers a cultural home to a broad spectrum of people, and shows more attention and respect for other continents.

At the same time, Hasse demonstrates that overcoming colonial ways of thinking does not and should not result in anti-Europeanism. Criticising European arrogance may well go hand in hand with feeling culturally at home in other traditions of Europe. For this, it does not matter whether one is a resident of the European continent or not. There is no privileged access to European culture or to the culture of any other continent.

About the Author

Dag Nikolaus Hasse is Professor of the History of Philosophy at the University of Würzburg since 2010 and is a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Among his numerous publications, two monographs stand out: ‘Avicenna's De Anima in the Latin West’ (2000) and ‘Success and Suppression: Arabic Sciences and Philosophy in the Renaissance’ (2016). In 2016, the German Research Foundation (DFG) awarded him the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, the highest distinction for a scientist in Germany.