Abstract
The modern world is marked by a paradox. The values that once defined its normative horizon, such as human dignity, autonomy, critical rationality, and the moral equality of all people, are increasingly invoked as universal achievements, yet they are simultaneously challenged, hollowed out, and strategically instrumentalized in many parts of the globe, including Europe itself. The heritage of the European Enlightenment, with its insistence on the self-legislating subject and the emancipatory force of reason, is under pressure from authoritarian populisms, technocratic reductionisms, and the erosion of public spheres capable of sustaining critical debate.
In such a constellation, the reaffirmation of autonomous subjectivity is not only an academic endeavour. It is an ethical and political necessity. The defence of free subjectivity entails much more than the simple protection of individual choice; it presupposes the cultivation of reflective selfhood, moral accountability, and the courage to question inherited authorities. Yet in a world structured by global interdependence and all-embracing crises, such as ecological disasters, profit-driven economies, digital infrastructures, and transnational conflicts, no cultural region can (or should) claim exclusive custodianship over these ideals. Since today’s crises are global, their resolution can only emerge from an inclusive, transcultural dialogue capable of rethinking modernity beyond Eurocentric self-descriptions, and of listening to knowledge and ideas developed in diverse historical traditions.
This special issue proceeds from precisely this conviction.