In an article in the Telegraph under the title “Europe’s dogmatic ruling class remains wedded to its folly”, Peter Oborne draws the quarrels over Britain’s future in the European Union into relation to age-old philosophical rivalries: “The problem is that European and British leaders tend to come from rival intellectual traditions”:

“In Britain, empiricism – most closely associated with Hume, though its roots can be traced back to William of Ockham and others – is the native inheritance. Empiricism insists that all knowledge of fact must be based on experience. Most European schools of philosophy claim the exact opposite, namely that ideas are the only things that truly exist. This school of metaphysical idealism can be traced back through Hegel (for whom history itself is the realisation of an idea) and Kant to Plato. Anglo-Saxon empiricism and the idealism found on the Continent therefore prescribe directly opposite courses of political conduct.”

Oborne’s attempt to align contemporary European politics with traditional European philosophy is fascinating. But I don’t think his distinction between idealists and empiricists will do the trick, since it mixes up positions in ontology (Idealists versus Materialists) and in epistemology (Rationalists versus Empiricists). However, I do think that significant philosophical – though non-national – differences are lurking behind today’s major political disputes about European union. Another philosophical distinction, and one which I will be discussing at this year’s philosophy and music festival “HowTheLightGetsIn”, might well be thought to underlie the major political differences concerning Europe’s future.