This article looks at contemporary Mediterranean geopolitical space through an interpretation of Mohammed Arkoun’s neo-humanism. With the publication of his doctoral thesis, entitled L’humanisme arabe au IVe-Xe siècle: Miskawayh philosophe et historien (1970), the Algerian thinker sparked a debate on the existence of tenth century Arab humanism. In Arkoun’s view, this humanist movement is comparable to and in a sense the precursor of the humanism that emerged in Italy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and then spread throughout Europe. Turning to this page in the history of humanism means rediscovering evidence of a shared history, in which Europe coincides with the Arab- Islamic countries, with its references to a whole tradition of religion and thought that brings together cultural elements from Europe, Asia and Africa. Today, for Arkoun, the revival of the humanist question has an important role to play, especially in the framework of formulating a broader proposal for rethinking Mediterranean space.
