ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses certain forms of thought which merit inclusion within a broadened understanding of precursors of contemporary cosmopolitical concerns. It asserts that there is a neglected but important historiographical and sociological dimension to these forms of cosmopolitan thinking, involving endeavours to root more abstract political-philosophical and metaphysical concerns in empirical historical conditions. These forms of classical cosmopolitanism cannot just be written off as abstract utopianism, for they endeavoured to think through how normative dispositions could be empirically realised. The chapter describes two dimensions of canonised cosmopolitanism, ancient philosophies and Kantianism. If the emerging realities of embryonic world-level commerce informed appropriations of Stoicism by early modern jurists, so too would the increasing importance of cross-planet trade be reflected in the cosmopolitical visions of the 18th century. Just as much as economic liberalism, utopian socialism–another important influence on embryonic sociology–also espoused such a vision.
