Le thème and of society's idea of its better future. A source of joy for us is that all our legal systems reflect and enact ideas and ideals found within the inexhaustible wealth of the European mind that we share. For Rousseau, romantic philosopher if ever there was one, law is a prodige (his word) that resolves the dialectic of individualism and collectivism in a way that allows human beings to find ever greater levels of personal self-fulfilment. All European countries have made their own version of liberal democracy. Rousseau's vision is present in all our societies, in one form or another. We Europeans have always been prolific social poets. Sometimes, we have been very bad s- ocial poets. In the 20th century, European philosophy itself became diseased. Paul Valéry called it "the crisis of the mind" (1919). Julien Benda called it "the surrender of the intellectuals" (1927). -Thomas Mann called it "a turning of the mind against itself" (1936). Martin Heidegger could speak of "the end of philosophy" (1964). All this at a time when the need for philosophy in the European tradition was greater than it had ever been. We must treat philosophy now with the respect that it deserves. The whole world needs it now. We may follow the teaching of Father Zosima, haunting presence in one of the greatest imaginative achievements of the European mind. We human beings are responsible for everything everywhere. We Europeans have played a major part in making the world as it is, for better and for worse. Durkheim hoped and expected, like Saint-Simon and Comte, that the decline and fall of religion could lead to a secularistic religion of a humanist kind that might help to fill the spiritual vacuum. That can be a good idea and a good ideal within the permanent self-educating of the European mind. Some few of us are already at work on the project of re-imagining law at all levels on such a foundation. 262 Droit & Littérature - Numéro 4 Livre_D&L4.indb 262 17/06/2020 17:31:27