In 2002, Peter Sloterdijk published a short study entitled Falls Europa erwacht (If Europe Awakens), in which, ten years after the end of the Cold War, he posed the question of whether Europe, freed from the grip of the two rival superpowers - the USSR in the East and the United States in the West - will be able to re-position itself as a significant player on the world political stage and take its rightful historical place in resolving the complex issues of the present day.

Today, twenty years later, with the return of war to the territory of the old continent, a philosophical questioning of Europe's positioning on the socio-political map of the world has become all the more explosive after the reformulation of the global strategic configuration.

The festive inauguration of the European Capital of Culture - Timișoara 2023 - is the appropriate setting for this conference, organised by the continent's most renowned contemporary cultural philosopher.

Peter Sloterdijk

He is one of the best known and most innovative contemporary philosophers. Foreign Policy and Prospect Magazine rank him among the 100 most influential public intellectuals. A prolific writer, he began publishing a long series of philosophical works after graduating from the University of Munich. The first of these, Critique of Cynic Reason, was immediately noted by commentators and achieved unprecedented circulation for a philosophical, scientific paper in post-war Germany. To date, the volume has been translated into more than 30 languages.

Peter Sloterdijk has been awarded numerous prizes and honorary doctorates (Ernst Robert Curtius Award, 1993; Sigmund Freud Award, 2005; Ludwig Börne Award, 2013). His professional activity has been intertwined with the public one: for two years. He holds the Lévinas Chair established in Strasbourg; since 1992, he has been a Professor of Philosophy and Aesthetics at the Hochschule fur Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, of which he was Rector from 2001-2015. He is constantly present in the German and French press and participates in numerous international symposia, colloquia and congresses.