Numero 22 (6° nuova serie), 2/2024 > Behr

Political cosmologies promise a relational conception of human interactions in contrast to orthodox conceptualisations (Western and non-Western) of ‘identity’, the ‘state’, or the ‘Self’ that rest on essentialising ontologies of ‘the other’. They emerge from a critical distinction from traditional concepts of cosmologies (e.g., Max Scheler and Mircea Eliade) but share with them the advantage of grounding human relations in existential experiences of all-encompassing structures that humans are thrown into. Political cosmologies help to unravel these experiences, however, conceptualise them not in essentialising ways as traditional concepts of cosmologies but as relational, open to differences and processes of becoming. One example of a politicalcosmological discourse from Western philosophy is Jacques Derrida’s and Eric Voegelin’s reading of Aristoteles’ aition. Their interlocution thus contributes to the development of frameworks for global political theory as it implies a conceptual focus on an existential search that seems universal to all human beings and has immediate practical consequences.