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. This year saw the publication of Cosmopolitanism and The Enlightenment (Cambridge University Press, 2023), the culmination of a collaborative project of many years led by ICREA Research Professor Joan-Pau Rubiés in collaboration with Professor Neil Safier of Brown University, Providence. 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. Interdisciplinary in approach, the book combines 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. It has been immediately reviewed very postively and welcomed as a timely intervention into the debate about the legacy of the Enlightenment.