At the limits of the West

A philosophical reflection after Davos

‘A Spirit of Dialogue’ – That was this year’s motto for the World Economic Forum. Genuine dialogue in the Socratic sense, where one can learn something, present one’s insights and doubts, and listen to the arguments of others, is not in good shape at the moment. So it was probably right to invoke the spirit of dialogue instead. – Though, was it?

“Despite all the frustration and anger of recent months, let us not be too quick to write off the transatlantic partnership. […] No, we Europeans, we Germans, know how precious the trust on which NATO is based is. In this age of great powers, the US will also depend on this trust. It is their and our decisive competitive advantage.” (German Chancellor Merz, Davos 2026)

This was the German Chancellor’s pledge. Strictly following Adam Smith, he did not appeal to the goodwill of the Americans, but to their self-interest. He spoke as an economically minded person, as someone who relies on reason and the power of better arguments. Towards the end of his speech, he once again invoked the spirit of the Enlightenment:

“Let us be inspired by what is perhaps the most important lesson of enlightenment: our fate is in our hands. It is our responsibility and our freedom to shape it.” (German Chancellor Merz, Davos 2026)

For those who are not familiar with those spirits, the French President explained the core idea of the Enlightenment once again for simple minds:

“But we do prefer respect to bullies. We do prefer science to conspiracy theories, and we do prefer the rule of law to brutality.” (Emmanuel Macron, Davos 2026)

This was widely perceived as a courageous statement – reinforced by the sunglasses – but anyone who reads Macron’s speech understands that the reference to our values was ultimately little more than an argument for investing in Europe: here there is stability, here there is reliability. Macron appealed to the self-interest of global companies.

Both speeches evoked the spirit of dialogue, the spirit of enlightenment that has been whispering to us for over 200 years: you can afford to be a decent person, it will pay off. So far, it has always worked out well. To quote Canadian Prime Minister Carney: ‘The fiction was useful.’

No one had yet asked the crucial question: But what if it no longer pays off? Will we then stop being decent? The answer could be painful. For dignity has no price. According to the great philosophers of the Enlightenment, it is not subject to the regime of utility maximisation. Dignity is, to quote the German Constitution, ‘inviolable’. The value of human beings is not measured by what they contribute. Our common foundation is not prosperity.

The American president, on the other hand, believes that people are different in value and that their value is reflected in the extent to which they can prevail:

“Many of you in this room are true pioneers. You’re truly brilliant, brilliant people. Just your ability to get a ticket is brilliant, because you have about 50 people for every seat.” (Donald Trump, Davos 2026)

His entire speech exuded that striving for dominance, that regaining of strength, that assertiveness and that contempt for the weak.

It was therefore no coincidence that the Canadian Prime Minister began his speech in French. French is not Carney’s mother tongue; it is the mother tongue of a minority of around 25% of Canadians. Carney thus paid tribute to those who depend on the majority to show consideration. He put himself in the shoes of those who struggle to make themselves heard in the chorus of the strong, who struggle to be understood by the assembled elite. Carney bore witness to the diversity of the human community even before he had said anything substantive. In doing so, he set himself apart from the rhetoric of the American President in style, content and language.

French is also the language of the revolution against authoritarian regimes, the language of the Enlightenment, the language in which human rights were first formally declared and written down, those human rights that protect the weak from the strong. Americans may have forgotten, but it was French soldiers who supported them in their War of Independence against the British Crown. In this language, Carney reminded the weak:

“La puissance des moins puissants commence par l’honnêteté.” – “The power of the less powerful begins with honesty.” (Mark Carney, Davos 2026)

The Canadian Prime Minister compared the current situation of the international order with the communism of the 1970s described by Vaclav Havel in his essay The Power of the Powerless. Everyone put communist slogans in their shop windows, but no one believed in them. The system only survived because no one was honest.

It worked for a long time. According to Carney, occasionally, the hegemon was allowed to break the rules because we all benefited from free sea lanes, a stable financial system, common security and international agreements. That has now changed. However, honesty not only requires a clear description of the situation, it also requires consistent action:

“Apply the same standards to allies and rivals. When middle powers criticise economic intimidation from one direction but stay silent when it comes from another, we are keeping the sign in the window.” (Mark Carney, Davos 2026)

Carney called on states and companies to take the signs out of the window. He called on the assembled elite to stand by their values and enter into (pragmatic) cooperation based on these values, instead of gathering in strongholds around a hegemon.

In doing so, he emphasised the idealistic character of the community that calls itself the ‘West’, which the US President also invoked so often in his speech. But contrary to what Trump believes, the ‘West’ is not a geography, a culture, an ethnicity, a skin colour, nor a business or economic model. The ‘West’ is the fundamental conviction that human dignity is not measured by utility. It is the conviction that the powerful cannot do whatever they want, as laid down in the French Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1789:

Les hommes naissent et demeurent libres et égaux en droits. (Art. 1)
La liberté consiste à pouvoir faire tout ce qui ne nuit pas à autrui. (Art. 4)

All men are born and remain free and equal in rights. (Art. 1)
Freedom consists in being able to do anything that does not harm another. (Art. 4)

For those who struggle with French, there is also an old English-language document:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (US Declaration of Independence, 1776)