The article addresses the question of the universalisation that can be expected from the current process of globalisation, which unifies the planet on the basis of the market economy. Propelled by scientific rationality, globalisation is producing a universalisation of resources that has the potential of providing all of humanity access to those basic goods which increase wellbeing by eliminating need. Nonetheless, it is observed that, under the influence of neoliberal ideology, the predominance of the economic dimension transforms globalisation into a (...) project used by those who consider all reality, including human beings, as a means. Globalisation thus produces a rational universalisation that impacts things and resources but not human beings. Far from bringing about a true universalisation of humanity, globalisation at the most sets the material conditions of access but leaves to the side the crucial problem of the mutual recognition of man for man. (shrink)