ABSTRACT
The contemporary idea of cosmopolitanism of course has its modern roots in one of the domains formalised by Kant, namely practical reason. In its original modern form, cosmopolitanism arose in the context of modern culture against the background of long-term processes of development which led to the establishment of modern society's core institutional components. From a critical social-theoretical viewpoint, cosmopolitanism's cognitive nature and normative significance must be clearly distinguished from one another. The emphasis on 'classification systems' or 'cultural models' imply that the shift from consensus to conflict does not necessarily entail the surrender of the reflexive dimension in favour of practice theory or an empiricist position. An adequate analysis requires understanding cosmopolitanism as part of the taken-for-granted cognitive order which is the stake over which social actors are conflicting. Such analysis provides the consequent unjust and social pathological conditions which require explanatory reference to socio-structural and/or socio-cultural causal mechanisms.
