Cosmopolitanism and the Enlightenment
As we face new global challenges – from climate change to the international political order – the need to re-examine the historical roots of cosmopolitanism and liberal principles on a global scale has become increasingly central to the political conversation. Cosmopolitanism and the Enlightenment brings together leading scholars in cultural history, the history of ideas and global politics in order to reassess the complexity of cosmopolitanism during the Enlightenment and its various interpretations over time. Through a fresh and revisionist perspective, the volume explores issues of universalism and cultural diversity, the idea of civilization, race, gender, empire, colonialism, global inequality, national patriotism, international and civil conflict, and other forms of political discourse, challenging the simple negative stereotype that the Enlightenment was inevitably hierarchical and Eurocentric. This timely intervention into the debate about the legacy of the Enlightenment highlights both the plurality and the continuing relevance of Enlightened cosmopolitanism to contemporary global concerns.
- Reassesses the often controversial legacy of the Enlightenment, from the crucial angle of cosmopolitanism
- Foregrounds less elitist cosmopolitan practices and traditions outside Europe to help re-think the problem of Eurocentric bias
- Offers an interdisciplinary perspective which draws on insights from cultural and global history as well as intellectual history, philosophy, and politics
Reviews & endorsements
‘These essays, together with the superb introduction by Rubiés and Safier, provide a probing, thoughtful look at the ever relevant subject of Enlightenment cosmopolitanism, informed by cutting-edge research and inspired by the classic works of Anthony Pagden.’ David Bell, Princeton University
'... the range of topics and viewpoints offered by its contributors, the quality of their research, and the extensive documentation to sources they provide will make the book a valuable reference and point of departure for further scholarship in the field.' David Allen Harvey, Princeton University, History of European Ideas
Product details
March 2023Hardback
9781009305341
358 pages
235 × 155 × 21 mm
0.67kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction: cosmopolitanism and the enlightenment Joan-Pau Rubiés and Neil Safier
- 1. Enlightenment cosmopolitanism in perspective: diversity, natural law and reason in the work of John Locke Daniel Carey
- 2. The Cosmopolitan paradox: travel, anthropology and the problem cultural diversity in early modern thought Joan-Pau Rubiés
- 3. Diderot's philosophical history and the history of 'monstrous nature' Girolamo Imbruglia
- 4. Geographies of cosmopolitanism: cartography, natural history and indigenous knowledge in the long eighteenth century Neil Safier
- 5. The imperial, global (cosmopolitan) dimensions of non-elite colonial scribal cultures in the early modern Iberian Atlantic Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra
- 6. Gendered Cosmopolitanism? The history of women and the science of man in the Scottish enlightenment Silvia Sebastiani
- 7. Cosmopolitanism and the creation of patriotic identities in the European enlightenment: the case of Pietro Napoli Signorelli and his Storia critica de' teatri antichi e moderni Melissa Calaresu
- 8. A Cosmopolitanism of countervailing powers: resistance against global domination in the political thought of Immanuel Kant and Quobna Ottobah Cugoano Sankar Muthu
- 9. Cosmopolitanism and civil war David Armitage
- Afterword: cosmopolitanism and its discontents Anthony Pagden.