Two Inter-s: Interdisciplinarity and Internationality

In this article I argue for a form of identity with an expectation and a promise of relationality. Europe needs such a commitment if it wants to be a union. The mode of living in what I call ‘being in-between’ entails a relationship with others, persons, groups, and cultures, even in cases where linguistic difference makes communication difficult. Here I continue that reflection considering different usages of that preposition inter- in its usual form derived from Latin. If there exists a metaphor that might be useful for evaluating the specific use of any concept, it could be ‘elasticity’. For, that word suggests an unbreakable and a near-unlimited extensibility. This is the paradoxical status of concepts that help us live with and through the following dilemma: only practice can pronounce on theoretical validity, while without theoretical validity, no practice can be evaluated. Hence, it is in the double framework where thinkers and creators hold hands that we can continue to invent Europe in significant-creative ways.