197-228

East Europe a region of cultural convergence

Articles

• Παπούλια, Βασιλική Δ.

The article “East Europe, a region of cultural convergence” is a moredeveloped form of a paper presented in the XIV Congress of HistoricalScience in Bucarest (10-17 August). In it Prof. Papoulia states, agreeingwith Carl Otto Apel, that one cannot proceed in the historical sciences withouta methodological syncretism. The author tries to indicate the possiblelevels of research in this field, on the level of a) Understanding b) Explanationand c) Dialectic. After the clarification of the notion of East Europe, theauthor believes that one must proceed to a morphological comparative studyof the “traces” which the historical and cultural evolution has left with thepurpose to catch their meaning and reach to the definition of the historicalentities of this region which more or less coincide with the ethnic différenciations,the ethnic collectivities. This approach would enable us, through atypology, to reach to the upper limits of this convergence, the new creations.On the level of the explanation Prof. Papoulia proceeds to a more concreatproblem, she tries to find one of the main features which differentiate Easternfrom Western Europe. In W. Europe the political and sociological conditionsdefined more or less the cultural evolution while in E. ' Europe the culturalfactor played a primordial role in the form of hellenization and “Europäization”.An explanation would consist in the definition of the interdépendanceof various factors which led to historical contradictions.The last Paragraph discusses whether the historical process on this regioncan be characterized as a dialectical one and in what this dialectic consists.The authour searches it in the relation between structure "and function andin the possibility of a new higher synthesis where most positive elements ofthe past could be rescued, and thus, gives a rather negative answer as to thedialectical nature of this historical process, particularly based on the negativeinfluence of some external political factors.

• History and Archaeology

• Ιστορία