Integration of “Plural Peoples”—— The Question of European Integration from Political Philosophical Perspective

Construction of political bodies is a key question of political philosophy.The European Union in the making needs to face the same question: to morph from the State of Nature of independent states into the “civil society” of the Union.But modern political bodies in terms of state assume a single people.The EU does not have a singular people to start with.It has multiple “peoples”.Pan-European identity does exist,but it is still weak.Conventional studies on European integration focus on institutions and policies.But it is also a serious political philosophical problem—how different individuals or peoples could live together.