Chaosmos
The chapter reflects a redemptive hope which is sometimes called a “grounded expectation” or chaosmos, which stresses the tension between order and disorder, concord and conflict. To explicate this conundrum, the chapter turns again to Heidegger as a thinker of “difference,” for whom chaos and cosmos both inhabit the “world,” triggering a transformative struggle. To exemplify the meaning of this struggle, the chapter invokes the task of “world-maintenance” upheld, in the Indian Bhagavad Gita, in the midst of an epic battle in the Mahabharata. In the Chinese tradition, world-maintenance involves the striving for a differentiated holism of “all under heaven,” in opposition to an imperially imposed “world order” from above, and urging the cultivation of mutual learning and understanding, fostering genuine mutual respect between cultures and peoples. Heidegger’s “being-in-the-world” from this angle means a wager in favor of a peaceful cosmopolis.