TY - JOUR

T1 - Inheriting Cosmopolitics

T2 - Pericles, Whitehead, Stengers

AU - Stürmer, Milan

AU - Bella, Daniel

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.

PY - 2023/5

Y1 - 2023/5

N2 - Isabelle Stengers’ cosmopolitical proposal is an influential attempt by a European philosopher to transform the burdensome legacy of Western thought. Reconsidering her comprehensive engagement with the cosmology of the British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, this article reveals two concepts as foundational to Stengers’ cosmopolitics: civilization and commerce. While not usually associated with a critical political theory, in her development of what we call a commercial political ontology, Stengers explores the modes of inheriting these ostracized notions. By tracing the genealogy of this political ontology back to Pericles’ first explicit defense of persuasion as a requisite for civilization, we argue that Pericles’ famous funeral oration provides the structure for Whitehead’s cosmology, and, ultimately, Stengers’ cosmopolitics. As such, we understand her cosmopolitical proposal as a dress rehearsal of a funeral eulogy for bourgeois society.

AB - Isabelle Stengers’ cosmopolitical proposal is an influential attempt by a European philosopher to transform the burdensome legacy of Western thought. Reconsidering her comprehensive engagement with the cosmology of the British mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, this article reveals two concepts as foundational to Stengers’ cosmopolitics: civilization and commerce. While not usually associated with a critical political theory, in her development of what we call a commercial political ontology, Stengers explores the modes of inheriting these ostracized notions. By tracing the genealogy of this political ontology back to Pericles’ first explicit defense of persuasion as a requisite for civilization, we argue that Pericles’ famous funeral oration provides the structure for Whitehead’s cosmology, and, ultimately, Stengers’ cosmopolitics. As such, we understand her cosmopolitical proposal as a dress rehearsal of a funeral eulogy for bourgeois society.

KW - civilization

KW - commerce

KW - cosmopolitics

KW - inheritance

KW - political ontology

KW - Stengers

KW - Whitehead

KW - Media and communication studies

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/854a19f1-e464-333d-991b-239c95182af8/

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132644405&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/02632764221092300

DO - 10.1177/02632764221092300

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 40

SP - 3

EP - 21

JO - Theory, Culture & Society

JF - Theory, Culture & Society

SN - 0263-2764

IS - 3

ER -