The practice of cosmopolitanism: A transnational study of the Enlightenment in France and Geneva, 1755--1768

Cosmopolitanism encouraged Enlightenment writers to set aside regional or national loyalties in pursuit of a common project of criticism and reform. Although historians have long acknowledged the place of cosmopolitanism in Enlightenment culture, few have examined how eighteenth-century writers sought to enact this ideal. My transnational study situates Geneva's intellectual elite within the international Enlightenment community in order to examine the practice of cosmopolitanism. Focusing on literary controversies involving Geneva and the city's political crisis during the 1760s, this dissertation describes how members of the Enlightenment community regulated critical and publishing practices in order to encourage and maintain transnational, collaborative relationships. Writers, however, often placed an emphasis on the cohesion of the community that undercut the primary purpose of cosmopolitanism. They set limits on debate in order to protect the personal relationships at the heart of the community. By placing the community's integrity above the discussion of ideas, the practice of cosmopolitanism hampered the Enlightenment's project of criticism and reform.