Terror(ology) in the Time of Cosmopolitanism

Abstract

The time of this Special Issue is, amongst other things, the time of a world-understanding that includes the social imaginary of “cosmopolitanism accomplished”. In this essay, such cosmopolitanism is placed into quote-marks and used as the temporal setting within which the discourse on terror that preoccupies the essay unfolds. In critical contrast to the relatively recently formed discourse of terrorology and to the “cosmopolitan” imaginary underneath, I explore terror through its universalities and negativities. Beginning with the philosophical unpreparedness to deal with terror I move to the lack of those ethico-political imaginative operations that would combat the “there is no alternative” rationale that nourishes some kinds of terror.