Since Plato's allegory of the cave two educational-philosophical critical modes have stood out: the descriptive (reality as it is) and the normative (reality as it should/could be). Reality resembles or is felt as an epistemic, political and existential permanent lockdown, 1 a state of isolation where access to ideality is too restricted and rare. Confined to a dystopian(ized) place of limited light and scant possibility the philosopher aspires to help others ascend to a utopian(ized) place of luminosity and promise. Granted, the philosophical-educational community has, as a historical and contemporary collectivity, contrasted the ideal and the real in richer and more complex modes than those of a neat 'descriptive versus normative' binarism. Nevertheless, the search operation for finding the key to unlock the lockdown is persistent and evident in most and otherwise diverse educationalphilosophical endeavours, especially in difficult times. As such a time, the recent pandemic has turned the philosophical, figurative lockdown, literally, into a palpable reality that incites more thinking about the tension between the ideal and the real. Discontent with reality is constitutive of philosophical explorations of education as preparation for an alternative and more desirable situation. Proof of this is the present collective paper and that which (Peters et al., 2020a) has inspired it. Collectively though varyingly, we describe the world of today and normativize the edifying thought and action that could lead to a better world. We lament and revoke a gloomy present to invoke and authorize a brighter future. 'We are stuck in the toxic 'Anthropocene,' while we need to embrace the curative 'Neganthropocene'' (Sturm et al., 2020, p. 15). Thinking and writing together (Madjar et al., 2020, p. 12), in a world of suspicion and fear (Ozoliņ s et al., 2020, p. 7), has produced several possibilities of what the key to opening the gate of a better future might be. 'Among other examples, there are references to a rehumanising of teaching, a revival of the ancient ideal of wisdom, and the development of post-digital pedagogies' (Roberts et al., 2020, p. 16). One such pedagogy, immersive education, redeems much 'yet unexplored philosophical and pedagogical potentiality' (Novak et al., 2020, p. 14). Other escape routes add to collective effort the affectivity of philia: 'we need to reclaim educational, philosophical and political activity through the practice of friendship' (Madjar et al., 2020, p. 13). We deplore the existing state of affairs, while cultivating hope for change; but we often discern glimpses of light and try to make them endure. We do so especially in times when such CONTACT Marianna Papastephanou

This article draws attention to the contemporary mantra of cosmopolitanism and how it carries altered symbolic representations, new social images and epistemic shifts. The background is the current cosmopolitan turn within the sciences, including within the discipline of education. How can we understand the contemporary makings of this new cosmopolitanism? And what could be the potential pitfalls and possibilities of a discourse that jeopardises the very representations of the social world? The first part of the article portrays the new cosmopolitanism as a metaphor for a way of life, an ideal and an outlook. The second part, however, moves beyond an encyclopedic mapping of the discourse while pointing out how the new cosmopolitanism is a product of-and produces-a common sense, an alldoxa, and a symbolic universe representing and naming the world: It is here held that ''cosmopolitanism'' is a name carrying symbolic representations with more or less hidden epistemic functions. However, as the name and metaphor assume something which it is not, the new cosmopolitanism carries and inherent paradox. The third part of the article discusses the impossible possibilities of this paradox: In what ways may the inherent contradictions of the new cosmopolitanism affect its making? And what may be the potential pitfalls and possibilities of a discourse contributing to the remaking of the very vision of the social world?Keywords Cosmopolitanism Á Symbolic representations Á The work of metaphor Á Education

In many countries publications in Web of Knowledge journals are dominant in the evaluation of educational research. For various purposes comparisons are made between the output of philosophers of education in these journals and the publications of their colleagues in educational research generally, sometimes also including psychologists and/or social scientists. Taking its starting-point from Hayden's article in this journal (2012), this paper discusses the situation of educational research in three countries: The Netherlands, South Africa and Norway. In this paper an alternative for comparing research output is offered by invoking comparisons with colleagues at the international level from within the same sub-discipline. It is argued that if one would do so a different picture would emerge, even if one were to limit oneself to particular kinds of publications. The case is then made that if comparisons are regarded as a necessary part of the evaluation of an individual scholar (for appointment, promotion, tenure, and/or funding application purposes), it would be more fair to use a proxy system which is sub-discipline specific, or minimally contains some kind of correction factor in relation to the overall quality assessment device. Debates about the relevance or irrelevance of philosophy of education in the context of educational sciences are now obscured, even poisoned by focusing almost exclusively on a particular kind of publication output. As the 'reward' system that is developed accordingly is possibly the most important driver of educational research, it puts the sub-discipline unduly under pressure to the extent that it possibly cannot survive.

Through an exegetic reading of Peirce's minor texts on higher education, I find that Peirce's conception of a ''Liberal Education'' is close to the Herbartian conception of Bildung. Peirce calls for a general education with the ambition of qualifying critical thinkers with the capacity to go beyond the strict rules and narrow borders of the artes liberales, -the different subject matters or sciences taught at a university. Thus, Peirce's conception of a liberal education is closely linked to his interpretation of common sense -or sensis communis -as a critical commonsensism. To him, it is urgent to educate and nurture ''the first rule of reason,'' described as a will to learn, a curiosity, a dissatisfaction of what you already incline to think, and an intense desire to find things out. The nurturing of this ''first rule of reason'' is thus about educating an intellectual community of critical thinkers who are able to question authoritative beliefs, knowing how to debunk them, and how to turn away from obiter dictum.

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