Concrete Universality: Philosophy for an Age of Fragmentation

By 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 artefacts 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 continuously produced through relations and forms of mediation. This approach gives rise to a new political method: 'concrete universality' emerges from situated encounters yet gains planetary resonance, from AI regulation to climate policy. 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 and a way of weaving together a fragmenting planet, one universal at a time.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1509576231
• ISBN13: 9781509576234
• Release Date: December 2026
• Publisher: Polity Press
• Length: 168 Pages