(Calenda announcement 1014258)
In the contemporary disputes about the words that make people angry, the quarrel about universalism occupies a decisive place. Indeed, each one claims, through forums and offices, seminars and colloquiums, the good use of the term, and sends the adversary back to his presuppositions. Should we, because it has been misused, renounce universalism? Or, at least, to relativize it, that is, to refuse to take into account what transcends our singularities? For, it must be recognized, the unfulfilled promises of universalism are at the origin of the crisis that it is going through. And the record of the accusation is heavy: the incantatory recourse to universal values has accommodated the persistence of discrimination, whether between rich and poor countries or, within these countries, between favored and marginalized populations.
