| dc.description.abstract | Like other intellectual fields, cosmopolitan thought today is partly constructed through narrations of its history, which debate what is living and dead in previous forms of cosmopolitical thinking. A standard narration has emerged, which depicts Western cosmopolitan thought as being made up of several key periods: ancient Greek and Roman metaphysics, 18th century political philosophy, post-1945 institutionalisations of cosmopolitan political structures, and the contemporary diversification in cosmopolitan thought, encompassing both political philosophy and the sociological/anthropological analysis of ‘really existing cosmopolitanisms’. This standard narration threatens to become unquestioned truth, unhelpfully restricting how the field understands itself. Against this trend, this paper proposes a re-thinking of the history of Western cosmopolitan thinking, doing so in two ways: 1) incorporating figures and schools of thought not normally included within the established cosmopolitan canon, and 2) focussing on under-examined dimensions of thinkers conventionally understood as central to cosmopolitan thought. The paper endeavours to depict some new possibilities for the self-understanding of the cosmopolitanism field today. | en_GB |
