Cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community. This is contrasted with ideologies of patriotism and nationalism. Cosmopolitanism may or may not entail some sort of world government or it may simply refer to more inclusive moral, economic, and/or political relationships between nations or individuals of different nations.

Philosophical cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitanism pertains to wide international experience. Cosmopolitan, meaning citizenship of the world; refers to a taste or consideration for cultures besides one's own culture of origin, as with a traveller or globally conscious person. The term derives from Greek cosmos (world) + polis (city, people, citizenry), and was widely used by ancient philosophers, such as the Stoics and Cynics, to describe a universal love of humankind as a whole, regardless of nation. The term may also be used as a synonym for worldly or sophisticated.

Cosmopolitans believe there is a burden on all of the people to cultivate and improve humanity as a whole and to provide enrichment in the best way that they can. This ties into ideas of brotherhood of humanity, and how the human race is one entity that humans must all band together to support. Nation-states are in a Hobbseian state of nature amongst each other, and in order to avoid conflicts and injustices, a "social contract" should be established among them.

The cosmopolitan writer, Demetrius Klitou, argues in his book, "The Friends and Foes of Human Rights," that cosmopolitanism is a major friend and a necessary element of the human rights movement. Furthermore, Klitou argues that a cosmopolitan "Human identity" is as necessary for the triumph of human rights, as a European identity is for a political European Union. He controversially argues that, "This is a major dilemma for the European project. We have a European Union, but no Europeans or a European identity. The same is equally true for human rights. We have human rights, but no Humans or a human identity" (p. 44).

Political and sociological cosmopolitanism

Ulrich Beck (b. May 15, 1944) is a sociologist who has posed the new concept of cosmopolitan critical theory in direct opposition to traditional nation-state politics. Nation-state theory sees power relations only between different state actors, and excludes a global economy, or subjugates it to the nation-state model. Cosmopolitanism sees global capital as a possible threat to the nation state and places it within a meta-power game in which global capital, states and civil society are its players.

It is important to mark a distinction between cosmopolitanism and the idea of a world state. In cosmopolitanism, imposing a single world order is considered hegemonic at best and ethnocentric at worst. Rather, political and sociological cosmopolitanism rests upon these fundamental foundations:

"Acknowledging the otherness of those who are culturally different"
"Acknowledging the otherness of the future"
"Acknowledging the otherness of nature"
"Acknowledging the otherness of the object"
"Acknowledging the otherness of other rationalities"

Cosmopolitanism shares some aspects of universalism – namely the globally acceptable notion of human dignity that must be protected and enshrined in international law. However, the theory deviates in recognising the differences between world cultures. Thus, a "cosmopolitan declaration of human rights" would be defined in terms of negatives that no one could disagree upon. In addition, cosmopolitanism calls for equal protection of the environment and against the negative side effects of technological development.

A cosmopolitan world would consist of a plurality of states, which would use global and regional consensus to gain greater bargaining power against opponents.

States would also utilise the power of civil society actors such as Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and consumers to strengthen their legitimacy and enlist the help of investors to pursue a cosmopolitan agenda. Some examples:

States hand over the global monitoring of human rights and environmental issues to NGOs like Amnesty International and Greenpeace who enjoy a high level of legitimacy in the public sphere.
States support NGOs to persuade consumers to "divest" from products that break cosmopolitan human and environmental codes.

Cosmopolitanism in practice

The most successful attempts of cosmopolitanism so far are the minor successes of the European Union, such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive which forbids companies from selling products with lead within the EU. As the European market is significant as a whole, this forces companies globally to remove environmentally destructive chemicals from their products. In this way, the EU counters a global risk through regional transnational co-operation which has enough clout so that it cannot be challenged in the courts of the World Bank and the IMF.

Critique of cosmopolitanism

Some critics of cosmopolitanism suggest that national affiliations are important to persons' identities, and that cosmopolitanism would strip an important component of social fulfillment and belonging from individuals.

Critics of economic cosmopolitanism argue that the economies of nation-states are necessary for an international economy to function, and a single world economy would fail.

Critics of moral cosmopolitanism argue that the concept of loyalty describes a virtue, and insofar as one does no wrong to people of other nation-states, one's priority should be the people of one's own country.

External links

Resources

Amanda Anderson. 1998. Cosmopolitanism, Universalism, and the Divided Legacies of Modernity. In Cosmopolitics: Thinking and Feeling beyond the Nation, edited by P. Cheah and B. Robbins. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
Bruce Robbins. 1998. Comparative Cosmopolitanisms. In Cosmopolitics: Thinking and Feeling beyond the Nation, edited by P. Cheah and B. Robbins. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
Cosmopolitan symposium with Thom Brooks, David Miller, and Thomas Pogge in Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 5(3) (2002).
2005. The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, edited by Gillian Brock and Harry Brighouse. Cambridge University Press.
2005. Power in the Global Age, by Ulrich Beck. London: Polity Press
Kleingeld, Pauline, Brown, Eric, "Cosmopolitanism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2002 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .

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