Ministry of Higher Education

and Scientific Research

University of Babylon
College of Education for Human Sciences
Department of English

cosmopolitanism

A report submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Drama

,Course, First Semester, Department of English

by
Hussain Hamed Jbr Dreb

Instructor: Prof. Raad Kareem Abd-Aun, PhD

2021-2022
 cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all human beings are members of a single
community. Its adherents are known as cosmopolitan or cosmopolite.
Cosmopolitanism is both prescriptive and aspirational, believing humans can
."and should be "world citizens" in a "universal community
The idea encompasses different dimensions and avenues of community, such
as promoting universal moral standards, establishing global political
structures, or developing a platform for mutual cultural expression and
.tolerance
For example, Kwame Anthony Appiah articulates a cosmopolitan community
where individuals from varying locations (physical, economic, etc.) enter
relationships of mutual respect despite their differing beliefs (religious,
political, etc.).By comparison, Immanuel Kant envisioned a cosmopolitan
world where armies were abolished and humans were governed under a
representative global institution. In all instances, proponents of
cosmopolitanism share an emphasis that all humans should form one cohesive
.and united community
In a looser but related sense, "cosmopolitan" is also used to describe places
where people of various ethnic, cultural and/or religious backgrounds live
.together and interact with each other

:Etymology
The word derives from the Ancient Greek: κοσμοπολίτης, or kosmopolitês,
formed from "κόσμος", kosmos, i.e. "world", "universe", or "cosmos", and
πολίτης, "politês", i.e. "citizen" or "[one] of a city". Contemporary usage
."defines the term as "citizen of the world

:Definitions
Definitions of cosmopolitanism usually begin with the Greek etymology of
"citizen of the world". However, as Appiah points out, "world" in the original
sense meant "cosmos" or "universe", not earth or globe as current use
assumes.One definition that handles this issue is given in a recent book on
:political globalization
Cosmopolitanism can be defined as a global politics that, firstly, projects a
sociality of common political engagement among all human beings across the
globe, and, secondly, suggests that this sociality should be either ethically or
.organizationally privileged over other forms of sociality

:Philosophical
Cosmopolitanism can be traced back to Diogenes of Sinope (c. 412 B.C.), the
founder of the Cynic movement in Ancient Greece. It was said that when

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Diogenes was "Asked where he came from, he answered: 'I am a citizen of the
world (kosmopolitês)'".At the time, the broadest basis of social identity among
Greeks was either the individual city-state or the culturally and linguistically
.homogenous Hellenic group
Stoicism, another Greek school of thought that was founded roughly a century
later, built upon Diogenes' idea, with many of its thinkers and adherents
stressing that each human being "dwells in two communities – the local
community of our birth, and the community of human argument and
aspiration". A common way to understand Stoic cosmopolitanism is through
Hierocles' circle model of identity, which states that individuals should regard
themselves as concentric circles: the first one around the self, followed by
immediate family, extended family, local group, citizens, countrymen,
humanity. Within these circles human beings feel a sense of "affinity" or
"endearment" towards others, which the Stoics termed Oikeiôsis. The task of
world citizens becomes then to "draw the circles somehow towards the centre,
."making all human beings more like our fellow city dwellers, and so forth

:Modern cosmopolitan thinkers

In his 1795 essay Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch, Immanuel Kant
stages a ius cosmopoliticum (cosmopolitan law/right) as a guiding principle to
help global society achieve permanent, enduring peace. Kant's cosmopolitan
right stems from an understanding of all human beings as equal members of a
universal community. Cosmopolitan right thus works in tandem with
international political rights, and the shared, universal right of humanity Kant's
cosmopolitan right is fundamentally bound to the conditions of universal
hospitality and the right of resort. Universal hospitality is defined as the right
to be welcomed upon arrival in foreign territory, but is contingent on a guest
arriving in a peaceful manner. Kant makes the additional claim that all human
beings have the basic right of resort: the right to present oneself in a foreign
land. The right of resort is derived from Kant's understanding of the Earth's
surface as essentially communal, and further emphasizing his claims on
.equally shared universal rights among all human beings
The philosophical concepts of Emmanuel Levinas, on ethics, and Jacques
Derrida, on hospitality, provide a theoretical framework for the relationships
between people in their everyday lives and apart from any form of written
laws or codes. For Levinas, the foundation of ethics consists in the obligation
to respond to the Other. In Being for the Other, he writes that there is no
"universal moral law," only the sense of responsibility (goodness, mercy,
charity) that the Other, in a state of vulnerability, calls forth[citation needed].
The proximity of the Other is an important part of Levinas's concept: the face
.of the Other is what compels the response

:Political and sociological

Emile Durkheim (1858–1917) observed the development of what he called the
'cult of the individual', which is a new religion that replaced the Christianity
that was dying out, and which is centered around the sacredness of human
dignity. This new religion would provide the new foundations of Western

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society, and these foundations are closely related to human rights and
individual nation's constitutions. A society's sacred object would be the
individual's human dignity, and the moral code guiding the society is found in
that country's way of interpreting human dignity and human rights. Thus,
rather than finding solidarity through national culture, or a particular
traditional religious doctrine, society would be unified by its adherence to
political values, i.e. individual rights and a defence of human
dignity.Durkheim's cult of the individual has many similarities to John Rawls'
.political liberalism, which Rawls developed almost a century after Durkheim

In his posthumously published (1957) "Professional Ethics and Civic Morals"

:Durkheim wrote that

If each State had as its chief aim not to expand or to lengthen its borders, but
to set its own house in order and to make the widest appeal to its members for
a moral life on a ever higher level, then all discrepancy between national and
human morals would be excluded. … The more societies concentrate their
energies inwards, on the interior life, the more they will be diverted from the
disputes that bring a clash between cosmopolitanism – or world patriotism,
and patriotism … Societies can have their pride, not in being the greatest or
the wealthiest, but in being the most just, the best organised and in possessing
.the best moral constitution

Ulrich Beck (May 15, 1944 – January 1, 2015) was a sociologist who posed
the new concept of cosmopolitan critical theory in direct opposition to
traditional nation-state politics. Nation-state theory sees power relations only
among 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 Beck's cosmopolitanism and the

idea of a world state. For Beck, imposing a single world order was 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 "
A number of philosophers, including Emmanuel Levinas, have introduced the
concept of the "Other". For Levinas, the Other is given context in ethics and
responsibility; we should think of the Other as anyone and everyone outside
ourselves. According to Levinas, our initial interactions with the Other occur
before we form a will—the ability to make choices. The Other addresses us
and we respond: even the absence of response is a response. We are thus
conditioned by the Other's address and begin to form culture and identity.
After the formation of the will, we choose whether to identify with the
.addresses by others and, as a result, continue the process of forming identity

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During this process, it is possible to recognize ourselves in our interactions
with Others. Even in situations where we engage in the most minimal
interaction, we ascribe identities to others and simultaneously to ourselves.
Our dependence on the Other for the continuous formation of language,
culture, and identity means that we are responsible to others and that they are
responsible to us. Also once we've formed a will, it becomes possible to
recognize this social interdependence. When we have gained the capacity for
recognition, the imperative is to perform that recognition and thereby become
.ethically responsible to the Other in conscience
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

Criticism
Cosmopolitanism" became a rhetorical weapon used by nationalists against "
"alien" ideas that went counter to orthodoxy. European Jews were frequently
accused of being "rootless cosmopolitans."[39] Joseph Stalin in a 1946
Moscow speech attacked writings in which "the positive Soviet hero is derided
and inferior before all things foreign and cosmopolitanism that we all fought
against from the time of Lenin, characteristic of the political leftovers, is many
".times applauded
In the German Democratic Republic, cosmopolitanism was characterized as a
bourgeois-imperialist ideology that rejects the nations' right to independence
and national sovereignty. Cosmopolitanism was said to promote the
dismantling of national and patriotic traditions and national culture. It was said
to be advocated by the Anglo-American imperialism with an aim to establish
world hegemony (World Government) operating in the interests of monopoly
capitalism. Its opposite was not chauvinist bourgeois nationalism, but
patriotism; love of one's native place, one's country. Love of the homeland
was said to be one of the deepest feelings of the working people, expressed in
the struggle against conquerors and oppressors.In the 21st century, the epithet
became a weapon used by Vladimir Putin in Russia, and by nationalists in
Hungary and Poland. In modern times, Stephen Miller, a Trump
administration senior policy advisor, publicly criticized CNN reporter Jim
Acosta as exhibiting "cosmopolitan bias" during a discussion on the
.government's new immigration plan

:References

Kleingeld, Pauline; Brown, Eric. "Cosmopolitanism". In Zalta, Edward N.

.(ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Living in the World Risk Society by Ulrich Beck at the London School of
Economics
The Venus Project

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Cosmopolitans' an essay on the philosophical history of cosmopolitanism '
Archived 2013-06-17 at the Wayback Machine
ref 1: GTI Paper Series see Dawn of the Cosmopolitan: The Hope of a Global
Citizens Movement, paper #15, and Global Politics and Institutions, paper #3