Abstract

The European ethos can be characterized in two different modes. On the one hand the European ethos has its origin in the radical formula of Socrates that acting unjustly is in every respect bad and that even suffering injustice is better than that. In this perspective the good life in a Socratic signification is the self-withdrawal of mere social acting in the sense of being socially successful. But because this origin of the European ethos is a “dynamite for civil society” we have to refer to Aristotle and his concept of ethics. There, on the other hand, we have to notice the habits and customs as a balance of the radical Socratic beginning. Considering these two origins of ethics we can recognize that moral austerity and ethical moderation are both two traditions of the European ethos and politics without being an alternative. For only the unity of these origins can demonstrate the universal sense of the European humanism