Political Cosmologies in Global Politics: An Interlocution of Jacques Derrida and Eric Voegelin

<em>Political cosmologies</em> 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. <em>Political</em> <em>cosmologies</em> help to unravel these experiences, <em>however</em>, 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 <em>political</em><em>cosmological</em> discourse from Western philosophy is Jacques Derrida’s and Eric Voegelin’s reading of Aristoteles’ <em>aition</em>. 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.