Germaine de Staël, the embodiment of the European spirit

De Staël’s work embodies the European spirit because it articulates both the universal and the individual. However, this must be understood in a philosophical sense: the individual must be open to alterity and, like a country, imagine oneself as a “nationality,” or in other words, as a space for critical thought that is capable of accommodating difference. Like Montaigne and Descartes before her, de Staël seeks convictions that can reconcile a confidence in progress and a respect for national differences.