From Substantive Reason to Cosmopolitan Substantive Reason: rehearsing new possibilities

Abstract Since reason is a fundamental concept of the sciences of organizations, this theoretical essay aims to analyze substantive rationality (RAMOS, 1989) and cosmopolitan rationality (SANTOS, 2002; 2007a; 2007b) in order to derive arguments from them in favor of a cosmopolitan substantive rationality. The distinction, confrontation, and extension of substantive reason in relation to instrumental reason gives rise to the assertion that substantive reason, also being cosmopolitan, offers alternative theoretical proposals to social science. The two models of reason also converge in the pragmatic idea of the consequences of its exercise, and its essence is symbolic interactions. Cosmopolitan substantive reason would constitute a conception that aggregates the restoration of life based on ethics and politics, and built on the recognition of the plural and multidimensional man and views translation as an element to be mediated in social interactions. It considers the ecology of knowledge as a guideline in the design of multidimensional social scenarios.