Abstract
A general feature of late modernity is the extension of a certain kind of critical awareness of constructedness, which used to be aimed only at the acts and beliefs of non-modern institutions and collectives but is now returning home. We realize in practice, and to an increasing extent in theory, that we live in a world whose features—times and spaces, for instance—are constructed. This is a loss of what could be termed ‘cosmological innocence’, that is, of a naive trust in e.g. spatial and temporal structures as simple representations of the world as it is. This paper explores the loss of innocence, arguing that it is a wholesome and enriching experience, and investigating how we can avoid a tendency to end it all before it gets really interesting by assuming 100% guilt on behalf of transcendental, non-worldly human subjectivity. To counteract this, the paper proposes a process metaphysical approach, which may allow us openly to share the joys and perils of constructing worlds along with other kinds of participants in the cosmos.