A Debt to Bind us All. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Nature of Social Obligations in the Building of a Federal European Union

This thesis defends a solidarity-based justification for a Federal European Polity. Starting from the European Sovereign Debt Crisis (ESDC), debt is the central subject of the first half of my thesis (Part I) whereas EU federalism, which is the focus of the second half of this work (Part II), is an application of my debt theory. Part I builds a theory of debt by exploring fundamental questions such as what debt really is, what are the relations between debts and moral obligations, it asks whether debts should be forgiven or if they should be repaid and what is the relationship between debt and political ideas such as solidarity. Once established that honouring one's debts is not the quintessential moral obligation but rather that, at times, debt forgiveness and debt-solidarity are reasonably justifiable options, the second part of the thesis moves to a political philosophy of debt. I thus apply my debt theory to build an argument for European Federalism built on a connection theory of debt solidarity and a theory of solidarity as a shield.

Jaar van publicatie:2021

Toegankelijkheid:Open