Lorenzo Marsili

Universalism is collapsing in real time. As Western hegemony wanes, the promise of universal values is unmasked as a parochial inheritance; and as AI systems multiply, universal truths transform into computed artifacts emerging from a particular code and training. In Concrete Universality, Lorenzo Marsili argues that the choice is not between a bankrupt universalism and an 'anything goes' relativism. He proposes a third path: universality as a practice of worldmaking. Drawing on Chinese philosophy, European thought and the contemporary metaphysics embedded in artificial intelligence and quantum mechanics, Marsili develops the concept of ontopoiesis: the idea that reality is not simply found but continuously produced through relations, cuts, and forms of mediation. This approach gives rise to a new political method. Universals are not timeless abstractions; they are fragile mortal achievements – concrete agreements and institutions that make the same thing visible to everyone, for a time, in a context. Marsili calls this 'concrete universality' – the formation of shared, binding practices that emerge from situated encounters yet gain planetary resonance, from nuclear regulation to digital ethics, from climate policy to cultural restitution. Here, universality is not a static ideal but an unfinished voyage whose horizons move as humanity moves. This book is an erudite and impassioned manifesto for a planetary philosophy – a way of weaving together a fragmenting planet, one universal at a time.

Universalism is collapsing in real time. As Western hegemony wanes, the promise of universal values is unmasked as a parochial inheritance; and as AI systems multiply, universal truths transform into computed artifacts emerging from a particular code and training. In Concrete Universality, Lorenzo Marsili argues that the choice is not between a bankrupt universalism and an 'anything goes' relativism. He proposes a third path: universality as a practice of worldmaking. Drawing on Chinese philosophy, European thought and the contemporary metaphysics embedded in artificial intelligence and quantum mechanics, Marsili develops the concept of ontopoiesis: the idea that reality is not simply found but continuously produced through relations, cuts, and forms of mediation. This approach gives rise to a new political method. Universals are not timeless abstractions; they are fragile mortal achievements – concrete agreements and institutions that make the same thing visible to everyone, for a time, in a context. Marsili calls this 'concrete universality' – the formation of shared, binding practices that emerge from situated encounters yet gain planetary resonance, from nuclear regulation to digital ethics, from climate policy to cultural restitution. Here, universality is not a static ideal but an unfinished voyage whose horizons move as humanity moves. This book is an erudite and impassioned manifesto for a planetary philosophy – a way of weaving together a fragmenting planet, one universal at a time.

The global crisis of our time involves a complex of ecological, economic, technological and migratory challenges that no state is able to control. The result is a provincialisation of our democracies with respect to the new planetary powers confronting humanity. It is from this that our increasingly impotent and rabid politics stems. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is precisely the decline of the nation-state that is the source of the great nationalist uprising of our time. We need a new planetary vision that is able to reclaim and liberate our world, starting today and engaging each of us. This is the task of philosophy as much as it is of politics, of theory as it is of activism. Connecting with a new generation taking to the streets across the globe, this book tells the story of the ever-closer union of our world, from the age of empire to the climate crisis, and presents a plea and a roadmap to step beyond the mental and material boundaries of our nations.

The global crisis of our time involves a complex of ecological, economic, technological and migratory challenges that no state is able to control. The result is a provincialisation of our democracies with respect to the new planetary powers confronting humanity. It is from this that our increasingly impotent and rabid politics stems. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is precisely the decline of the nation-state that is the source of the great nationalist uprising of our time. We need a new planetary vision that is able to reclaim and liberate our world, starting today and engaging each of us. This is the task of philosophy as much as it is of politics, of theory as it is of activism. Connecting with a new generation taking to the streets across the globe, this book tells the story of the ever-closer union of our world, from the age of empire to the climate crisis, and presents a plea and a roadmap to step beyond the mental and material boundaries of our nations.

Europe might appear like a continent pulling itself apart. Ten years of economic and political crises have pitted North versus South, East versus West, citizens versus institutions. And yet, these years have also shown a hidden vitality of Europeans acting across borders, with civil society and social movements showing that alternatives to the status quo already exist. This book is at once a narrative of the experience of activism and a manifesto for change. Through analysing the ways in which neoliberalism, nationalism and borders intertwine, Marsili and Milanese – co-founders of European Alternatives – argue that we are in the middle of a great global transformation, by which we have all become citizens of nowhere. Ultimately, they argue that only by organising in a new transnational political party will the citizens of nowhere be able to struggle effectively for the utopian agency to transform the world.