English summary: Cosmopolitanism aspires to openness and universality, yet it is fraught with contradictions. While seeking to transcend borders, it has often concealed exclusions and hierarchies. This volume explores these tensions through literature and political philosophy, examining how writers and philosophers - from Cam?es to Woolf and Conrad, from Kant to Appiah - have engaged with belonging, power, and identity. Rather than a fixed ideal, cosmopolitanism emerges as a contested space, shaped by both connection and inequality.
German description: Cosmopolitanism has often been regarded as an ideal of openness, dialogue, and universality, yet it remains fraught with contradictions. While aspiring to transcend borders and affirm a shared human condition, it has frequently been entangled with histories of exclusion, imperialism, and uneven power dynamics. This volume brings together perspectives from literature and political philosophy to critically examine the tensions at the heart of cosmopolitan thought.In literature, cosmopolitanism appears as both a promise and a paradox - expressed through narratives that celebrate cultural encounters but also expose hierarchies and asymmetries. From Cam?es to Woolf and Conrad, writers have explored the complexities of belonging, displacement, and the limits of global exchange. Their works reflect the ambivalence of a cosmopolitan imagination that both embraces and questions the possibilities of interconnectedness.
In political philosophy, the debate extends to issues of citizenship, law, and democracy: to what extent can cosmopolitan ideals challenge national frameworks, and where do they risk reinforcing exclusion under the guise of universality? Thinkers from Kant to Appiah have interrogated the ethical and political dilemmas of cosmopolitanism, revealing its potential to expand solidarity beyond borders while also highlighting its structural limitations.
Rather than presenting a singular vision, this book explores cosmopolitanism as a site of tension - between openness and exclusion, universality and particularity, theory and lived experience. By confronting these contradictions, it invites a deeper reflection on the possibilities and limits of a world shaped by interconnected yet unequal histories.
"Contributor Biography - English Soraya Nour Sckell is fullProfessor at the NOVA School of Law, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. She is researcher at CEDIS (NOVA School of Law) and at the Center of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon. She is the Principal Investigator of the Project ?Cosmopolitanism: Justice, Democracy and Citizenship without Borders? (PTDC/FER-FIL/30686/2017). She received the Wolfgang Kaupen-Preis (German Society for Sociology, section Sociology of Law, 2018) and the German-French Friendship Prize (Ambassy of Germany in Paris, 2012). She has obtained a PhD in Philosophy from the University Paris Nanterre and the Goethe-Universit't Frankfurt am Main (thesis in cotutela, 2012) and a PhD in Law from the University of Sao Paulo (USP, 1999). She has done post-doc research at the Universities of Saint Louis (SLU), Nanterre, Frankfurt a.M. and Berlin (Humboldt University) and taught at the Universities of S?o Paulo (USP), Munich, Metz, Lille, and Lisbon, as well as at the University Portucalense. She has been director of the research program on cosmopolitanism at the Coll?ge International de Philosophie in Paris (2013-2019) and she is the vice-president of the Association Humboldt France. Rui Sousa is a researcher in Group 1 of the Centre for Lusophone and European Literatures and Cultures (CLEPUL). He holds a Master's degree in Modern and Contemporary Portuguese Literature (2009) and a PhD in Literary and Cultural Studies (2019) from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Lisbon. He contributed to the volume 1915: O Ano do Orpheu (ed. Steffen Dix) and collaborates with the journal Pessoa Plural, as well as with events organized by the Estranhar Pessoa project and the Casa Fernando Pessoa. Contributor Biography - German Soraya Nour Sckell is fullProfessor at the NOVA School of Law, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. She is researcher at CEDIS (NOVA School of Law) and at the Center of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon. She is the Principal Investigator of the Project ?Cosmopolitanism: Justice, Democracy and Citizenship without Borders? (PTDC/FER-FIL/30686/2017). She received the Wolfgang Kaupen-Preis (German Society for Sociology, section Sociology of Law, 2018) and the German-French Friendship Prize (Ambassy of Germany in Paris, 2012). She has obtained a PhD in Philosophy from the University Paris Nanterre and the Goethe-Universit't Frankfurt am Main (thesis in cotutela, 2012) and a PhD in Law from the University of Sao Paulo (USP, 1999). She has done post-doc research at the Universities of Saint Louis (SLU), Nanterre, Frankfurt a.M. and Berlin (Humboldt University) and taught at the Universities of S?o Paulo (USP), Munich, Metz, Lille, and Lisbon, as well as at the University Portucalense. She has been director of the research program on cosmopolitanism at the Coll?ge International de Philosophie in Paris (2013-2019) and she is the vice-president of the Association Humboldt France. Rui Sousa ist Forscher in Gruppe 1 des Centre for Lusophone and European Literatures and Cultures (CLEPUL). Er hat einen Masterabschluss in Moderner und Zeitgen?ssischer Portugiesischer Literatur (2009) sowie einen Doktortitel in Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften (2019) von der Fakult't fur Geisteswissenschaften der Universit't Lissabon. Er hat zum Band 1915: O Ano do Orpheu (hg. von Steffen Dix) beigetragen und arbeitet mit der Zeitschrift Pessoa Plural sowie mit Veranstaltungen des Projekts Estranhar Pessoa und der Casa Fernando Pessoa zusammen. "
