Tihanov, Galin2026-07-102026-07-1020263033-0599 (Online)https://doi.uni-plovdiv.bg/handle/store/1036In the first part of this article I explore various meanings of the word ‘cosmopolitanism’ and attempt to attain finer granularity by identifying two different strands within what has long been taken to be a unitary discourse. In the second part, I discuss the complex relationship (often also divergence) between the two types of cosmopolitanism – political and cultural – that I identify in the first part. I do so by analysing two foundational narratives of exile, the first of which bears on the humanities and their supreme capacity to cultivate creativity and freedom through estrangement. In the final part, I turn to the mission of the humanities today, which I happen to believe needs to be grounded, against the odds, in the cultivation and articulation of a cosmopolitan ethos.enOther