What is Cosmopolitanism?
PhD, English Literature (Lancaster University)
Date Published: 23.09.2024,
Last Updated: 23.09.2024
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Definition
Cosmopolitanism, in political theory, is the belief that all people belong to one global community and, as such, should be afforded equal rights regardless of their nationality, race, religion, or any other factor. The word “cosmopolitan” comes from the ancient Greek words “cosmos” (meaning “world”) and “polites” (meaning “citizen”), translated as “citizen of the world.” As Thomas W. Pogge explains,
The more common modern meaning closely reflects these ancient roots. Persons are called cosmopolitans, or cosmopolitan, when they are understanding and respectful of foreign cultures, travel widely, and can interact well with people from many societies. And cities or gatherings are called cosmopolitan when they bring together persons and groups with diverse ethnicities, languages, cultures, religions or lifestyles. (“Cosmopolitanism,” A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, Volume 2, 2009)
Edited by Robert E. Goodin, Philip Pettit, and Thomas Pogge
The more common modern meaning closely reflects these ancient roots. Persons are called cosmopolitans, or cosmopolitan, when they are understanding and respectful of foreign cultures, travel widely, and can interact well with people from many societies. And cities or gatherings are called cosmopolitan when they bring together persons and groups with diverse ethnicities, languages, cultures, religions or lifestyles. (“Cosmopolitanism,” A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, Volume 2, 2009)
Cosmopolitanism emphasizes humanity, empathy, cultural respect, and the universal application of justice:
Thus, at its most basic, cosmopolitanism is about reaching out across cultural differences through dialogue, aesthetic enjoyment, and respect; of living together with difference. It is also about the cosmopolitan right to abode and hospitality in strange lands and, alongside that, the urgent need to devise ways of living together in peace in the international community. (Pnina Werbner, “Introduction: Towards a New Cosmopolitan Anthropology,” Anthropology and the New Cosmopolitanism, 2020)
Edited by Pnina Werbner
Thus, at its most basic, cosmopolitanism is about reaching out across cultural differences through dialogue, aesthetic enjoyment, and respect; of living together with difference. It is also about the cosmopolitan right to abode and hospitality in strange lands and, alongside that, the urgent need to devise ways of living together in peace in the international community. (Pnina Werbner, “Introduction: Towards a New Cosmopolitan Anthropology,” Anthropology and the New Cosmopolitanism, 2020)
As Pogge identifies in his 1992 essay “Cosmopolitanism and Sovereignty,” there are three characteristics “shared by all cosmopolitan positions”:
- Individualism: Humanity comes before any other affiliation or cultural group a person is a part of. Being human, thus, transcends family lineage, tribes, cultural or religious communities and nations.
- Universality: As humans, everyone should be treated equally and viewed only as “human” rather than in class differentiates or racial/religious classifications.
- Generality: These principles should apply globally. People should be concerned with applying these principles to everyone even if they are not from the same country, religious group, community etc.
(Political Restructuring in Europe, 2003)
Edited by Chris Brown
- Individualism: Humanity comes before any other affiliation or cultural group a person is a part of. Being human, thus, transcends family lineage, tribes, cultural or religious communities and nations.
- Universality: As humans, everyone should be treated equally and viewed only as “human” rather than in class differentiates or racial/religious classifications.
- Generality: These principles should apply globally. People should be concerned with applying these principles to everyone even if they are not from the same country, religious group, community etc.
(Political Restructuring in Europe, 2003)
While cosmopolitanism has ancient roots, it has fascinated scholars for centuries. The perhaps most influential renewal of these ideas came during the Enlightenment as thinkers such as Immanuel Kant theorized about human morality and rights. In the late twentieth century, we see a renewed interest in cosmopolitanism as the world becomes more interconnected through technology and globalization. This guide will explore the origins of cosmopolitan thinking from the ancient Stoics to Enlightenment thinkers. We will then cover three types of cosmopolitanism, before examining cosmopolitanism in action in our modern world.
Origins of cosmopolitanism
The Stoic kosmopolitês
Cosmopolitanism goes back to the ancient Greek and Roman philosophy of Stoicism, which emphasizes virtue and the importance of controlling one’s emotions in order to live a fulfilling and peaceful life. As Derek Heater explains, the philosopher Diogenes may have coined the term “kosmopolitês” i.e. “citizen of the world”:
[Diogenes] rejected the status of a politēs, a citizen, in favour of that of a kosmopolitēs, a citizen of the 'cosmos', the universe. Man, he was proclaiming, is not, as his contemporary Aristotle asserted, a political animal; he is, as a species, a multicultural animal. The culture of any given state or people is not the only one; no mode of behaviour is necessarily right. It is this openness of mind, the very negation of xenophobia and of the hubris of conceited patriotism, that is one of the crucial characteristics of the citizen of the world. (World Citizenship, 2004)
Derek Heater
[Diogenes] rejected the status of a politēs, a citizen, in favour of that of a kosmopolitēs, a citizen of the 'cosmos', the universe. Man, he was proclaiming, is not, as his contemporary Aristotle asserted, a political animal; he is, as a species, a multicultural animal. The culture of any given state or people is not the only one; no mode of behaviour is necessarily right. It is this openness of mind, the very negation of xenophobia and of the hubris of conceited patriotism, that is one of the crucial characteristics of the citizen of the world. (World Citizenship, 2004)
Stoicism influenced the work of numerous philosophers with the concept of world citizenship appearing in the works of Michel de Montaigne (Essays, 1580) and Francis Bacon, the latter of whom proclaimed “If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world” (The Essays, 1625, [2016]).
Seventeenth-century philosopher John Locke also “expresses Stoic-like cosmopolitan thoughts” in his 1690 work The Second Treatise of Civil Government (Heator, 2004). The concept began to gain popularity during the Enlightenment period:
But it was the mid-to-late eighteenth century that witnessed the claims by so many notable Enlightenment figures that they were 'citizens of the world' - for instance, Diderot, Schiller, Paine. And some openly expressed their intellectual debt to the ancient Stoics - we may instance the influence of Cicero and Seneca on Franklin and Marcus Aurelius on Voltaire. But these were no more than attitudes of mind, all paling in comparison with Kant's intellectual commitment to the cosmopolitan ideal at the very end of the century. (Heater, 2004)
Kant
In Kant and Cosmopolitanism (2011), Pauline Kleingeld explains we can see cosmopolitanism in the communities described by Kant in the following works: Critique of Pure Reason (1781) and Critique of Judgment (1790) both refer to a “moral world”; Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (1785) describes the “realm of ends”; and in the Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason (1792) Kant refers to the “ethical commonwealth”. In all these communities, “all subjects are equal members (“citizens”), regardless of nationality, religion, language, and so on” (Kleingeld, 2011). Kleingerd goes on to explain,
According to Kant, this moral community is a community of equals. This means not only that all moral persons are the potential object of cosmopolitan activity, but also that they are all equally cosmopolitan subjects, which is to say that all are fellow citizens and ought to treat each other as such. (2011)
Pauline Kleingeld
According to Kant, this moral community is a community of equals. This means not only that all moral persons are the potential object of cosmopolitan activity, but also that they are all equally cosmopolitan subjects, which is to say that all are fellow citizens and ought to treat each other as such. (2011)
Kant’s work on cosmopolitanism also includes Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (1795) which proposes an international league of states dedicated to protecting the rights of human beings. This ethos is at the core of the United Nations (UN), a diplomatic and political organization designed to maintain international peace and security (see Patrice Ndayisenga, "United Nations, Global Governance, and Perpetual Peace," Global Futures Initiative, 2015). We will cover to what extent Kant’s vision has been realized in the UN and various other organizations later in the guide.
Despite such noble ideals, as Kleingerd reminds us, Kant’s cosmopolitanism was not as egalitarian as he proclaimed, stating “It should be added straightaway, however, that Kant does not always follow his own egalitarian theory in practice” (2011). For example, Kant is less critical of sexism and racism than some of his contemporaries:
[Kant] defends a hierarchical account of human “races” until the 1790s and never gives up his view that women are naturally inferior to men (Kleingeld, 2011).
Types of cosmopolitanism
Scholars have attempted to categorize the broad and complex concept of cosmopolitanism. This section will explore just some of the types of cosmopolitanism identified by critics.
Banal vs reflexive cosmopolitanism
In his work, Cosmopolitan Vision (2014), sociologist Ulrich Beck outlines two categories of cosmopolitanism: banal and reflexive cosmopolitanism. Banal cosmopolitanism refers to the unintended effects of globalization (i.e., not recognizing differences in cuisine from other parts of the world as we have become accustomed to it) and reflexive cosmopolitanism describes the conscious decision to explore one’s place in the world (i.e., by actively meeting people from other cultures).
Moral cosmopolitanism
Moral cosmopolitanism is the belief that everyone deserves basic human rights regardless of any factors such as nationality, race, religion, etc. Gillian Brock explains that,
The crux of the idea of moral cosmopolitanism is that every person has global stature as the ultimate unit of moral concern and is therefore entitled to equal consideration no matter what her citizenship or nationality status. (“Cosmopolitanism and the Struggle for Global Justice,” The Ashgate Research Companion to Cosmopolitanism, 2016)
Edited by Maria Rovisco and Magdalena Nowicka
The crux of the idea of moral cosmopolitanism is that every person has global stature as the ultimate unit of moral concern and is therefore entitled to equal consideration no matter what her citizenship or nationality status. (“Cosmopolitanism and the Struggle for Global Justice,” The Ashgate Research Companion to Cosmopolitanism, 2016)
Cultural cosmopolitanism
Cultural cosmopolitanism challenges the notion that individuals should be separated by their cultures. Instead, it argues that we should apply universal standards of right and wrong and live by these. As Adam D. Etison writes,
By affirming our capacity as individuals to live well in the world by forming pastiche identities that draw from cultures as disparate or as incongruous as we like, cultural cosmopolitanism is a challenge to those strands of liberal thought that defend the importance of rootedness in a single culture for individual well-being and autonomy. (“Cosmopolitanism: Cultural, Moral, and Political,” Sovereign Justice, 2010)
As such, humans are not predetermined “products of culture” but are free to “roam the earth and assemble (or reassemble) for themselves a unique cultural concoction by choice or by chance” (Etison, 2010). For more on theories delving into cultural identity, see our study guides “What is Hybridity in Postcolonial Theory?” and “What is Third Space?”.
Economic cosmopolitanism
Economic cosmopolitanism is interested in the distribution of resources and economic power. The rights of individuals can only be truly enforced on a global scale if everyone has access to the same resources:
Economic cosmopolitanism connotes the enhancement of people’s economic capacities to pursue their own projects – individual and collective – within the constraints of community and interdependence between communities, i.e. within the constraints created by taking each human being’s interest in declared liberties equally seriously. It thus specifies good reasons for being committed to reforming and regulating all those forms of economic power which compromise the possibility of equal worth and active agency. (David Held, Cosmopolitanism: Ideals and Realities, 2013)
David Held
Economic cosmopolitanism connotes the enhancement of people’s economic capacities to pursue their own projects – individual and collective – within the constraints of community and interdependence between communities, i.e. within the constraints created by taking each human being’s interest in declared liberties equally seriously. It thus specifies good reasons for being committed to reforming and regulating all those forms of economic power which compromise the possibility of equal worth and active agency. (David Held, Cosmopolitanism: Ideals and Realities, 2013)
Moreover, economic power has a direct link to political power. As such, as Angela Taraborrelli explains, economic cosmopolitanism advocates for the “restructuring of market mechanisms and the dominant sites of economic power,” “global taxation mechanisms,” and the provision of more resources to the vulnerable (Contemporary Cosmopolitanism, 2015).
Political cosmopolitanism
Political cosmopolitanism suggests that there should be global political institutions rather than different governments for each nation. As Simon Caney writes,
[Political cosmopolitanism] holds that there should be supra-state political institutions. So this kind of cosmopolitanism maintains that persons are citizens of the world in the sense that there should be political institutions that encompass all. One version of political cosmopolitanism holds, for example, that there should be a system of multilevel governance, in which there are supra-state institutions, state-like institutions, and sub-state political structures (Cosmopolitanism and Justice,” Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy, 2009)
Edited by Thomas Christiano and John Christman
[Political cosmopolitanism] holds that there should be supra-state political institutions. So this kind of cosmopolitanism maintains that persons are citizens of the world in the sense that there should be political institutions that encompass all. One version of political cosmopolitanism holds, for example, that there should be a system of multilevel governance, in which there are supra-state institutions, state-like institutions, and sub-state political structures (Cosmopolitanism and Justice,” Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy, 2009)
This structure is designed to facilitate decision making at a number of levels, with the aim of ensuring accountability, coordination, and the fair and consistent application of legislation.
Examples of political cosmopolitanism include the United Nations (UN) in which nations work together towards peacekeeping goals and the International Criminal Court (ICC) which investigates crimes of universal concern such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. (We will explore the UN in further detail in the following section.)
For further reading on the UN and ICC, and about political cosmopolitanism more broadly, see Daniele Archibugi’s The Global Commonwealth of Citizens (2008).
Cosmopolitanism in practice
In their introduction to Cosmopolitanism in Practice, Magdalena Nowicka and Maria Rovisco explain,
Cosmopolitan identity outlooks and practices that are observable in real life situations have to be seen in connection with the way cosmopolitan norms and values become increasingly institutionalized in the contemporary world. Formal organizations, such as the United Nations, have included cosmopolitan values in their mission, whereas transnational non-governmental organizations, grassroots social movements and informal networks of NGOs are also appropriating cosmopolitan values and ideas for accomplishing their causes and agendas. These are all forms of an institutional cosmopolitanism that is embedded in various formal rules, laws and organizational structures. (2016)
Edited by Maria Rovisco and Magdalena Nowicka
Cosmopolitan identity outlooks and practices that are observable in real life situations have to be seen in connection with the way cosmopolitan norms and values become increasingly institutionalized in the contemporary world. Formal organizations, such as the United Nations, have included cosmopolitan values in their mission, whereas transnational non-governmental organizations, grassroots social movements and informal networks of NGOs are also appropriating cosmopolitan values and ideas for accomplishing their causes and agendas. These are all forms of an institutional cosmopolitanism that is embedded in various formal rules, laws and organizational structures. (2016)
This section will explore how cosmopolitanism works in action, from the UN and global human rights movements to travel and volunteer tourism.
The UN
We have previously covered how Kant envisioned a global organization of nations, designed to preserve peace. Built upon similar principles, the UN was formed in 1945 to coordinate the actions of member nations with the ultimate goal of worldwide peace and security. (For more on this, see “History of the United Nations”)
One of the UN’s most notable contributions to advocating for global rights is its creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This outlines 30 universal rights and freedoms that must be protected, regardless of citizenship or nationality, and forms the basis for international human rights law.
As Beck points out, however, the UN has its limits:
The world is struggling to develop new rules for global domestic politics. The founding principle of the United Nations was the inviolability of the sovereignty of nation-states. But in the one world whose continued existence is threatened by transnational terrorism, climate change, global poverty and unbounded military violence, this principle no longer guarantees peace, and hence the internal and external security of states and societies. It protects neither citizens against tyrannical violations of their rights nor the world against terrorist violence. (2014)
NGOs and climate initiatives
We can also see the ideals of cosmopolitanism in action in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Médecins Sans Frontières (known as Doctors Without Borders), which provides medical care in areas affected by natural disasters, conflict, epidemics, or healthcare exclusion. Other examples of NGOs include Amnesty International and UNICEF.
Global environmental initiatives such as the Paris Agreement reflect the idea of global citizenship: no one country is responsible for saving our planet from the impact of climate change. In Cosmopolitanism and the Evils of the World, Michael H. DeArmey offers solutions for climate change in line with cosmopolitan values, such as strict compliance with the Paris Agreement, subsidization of solar panel manufacture worldwide, and the banning of coal as a fuel for power plants, all of which he stresses require a global effort.
Travel
Globalization has significantly increased travel by making the world more interconnected and accessible (see our guide on time-space compression for more detail on this). This has enabled many individuals to explore different cultures and connect with those of different cultures, embodying the cosmopolitan ethos. Two areas in which travel has been explored in relation to cosmopolitanism are gap-year traveling and volunteer tourism.
In A Cosmopolitan Journey? Helene Snee explores gap-year traveling and the extent to which it enables young people to engage with other cultures and thus become more cosmopolitan:
Independent travel, or backpacking, is seen to have different values to ‘mainstream tourism’. These are: travelling on a low budget; meeting different people; being or feeling free; being independent and open-minded; the individual and independent organisation of journeys; and travelling for as long as possible [...] The values of cosmopolitanism resonate with such principles, particularly wanting to meet different people and being open-minded. (2016)
Helene Snee
Independent travel, or backpacking, is seen to have different values to ‘mainstream tourism’. These are: travelling on a low budget; meeting different people; being or feeling free; being independent and open-minded; the individual and independent organisation of journeys; and travelling for as long as possible [...] The values of cosmopolitanism resonate with such principles, particularly wanting to meet different people and being open-minded. (2016)
Travel has also facilitated volunteer tourism. In the introduction to Tourism, Cosmopolitanism and Global Citizenship, Jim Butcher explains that,
Up until the relatively recent growth and growing profile of ethical tourism niches, it was unusual to associate tourism with global citizenship or cosmopolitan ambition: leisure was leisure and citizenship was political. If you wanted to make a difference to the world, or to study it, holidays were not the time or place to do it. (2019)
Edited by Jim Butcher
Up until the relatively recent growth and growing profile of ethical tourism niches, it was unusual to associate tourism with global citizenship or cosmopolitan ambition: leisure was leisure and citizenship was political. If you wanted to make a difference to the world, or to study it, holidays were not the time or place to do it. (2019)
As Butcher identifies, there has been a rise in volunteer tourism over the past thirty years, which he describes as “projects of ethical selfhood: the forging of an ethical sense of self in a world in which the import of older political and moral parameters has diminished” (2019). However, as Butcher points out, there is debate as to who benefits from volunteer tourism and how egalitarian this expression of cosmopolitanism really is:
Much debate has focused on the extent to which volunteer tourism does, or can, achieve its stated aims, or how it could be organised to succeed in this. Some have posed the question ‘who benefits’: the global citizen with an exciting and impressive portfolio of experiences, or the communities they seek to help. Others have sought to understand what the rise of volunteer tourism and other ethical niches indicates about contemporary culture. (2019)
To learn more about this, see Parscal Scherrer and Jessica Steele’s article “Power to the hosts: how to fix volunteer tourism” (The Conversation, 2018).
Criticisms of cosmopolitanism
Criticisms of cosmopolitanism are nothing new, as evidenced in the work of Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx in the nineteenth century. In The Communist Manifesto they write,
The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. [...] All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilised nations, by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw material, but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. [...] In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal interdependence of nations. (Engels and Marx, 1848, [2014])
Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx
The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. [...] All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilised nations, by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw material, but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. [...] In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal interdependence of nations. (Engels and Marx, 1848, [2014])
In other words, Marx and Engels viewed cosmopolitanism as being ultimately tied to bourgeois interests and as a way of spreading capitalism around the world. In “Cosmopolitanism: the End of Jewishness?” Michael L. Miller and Scott Ury explain this perspective,
Unlike Kant, Marx did not view the interdependence of nations as a prerequisite for ‘perpetual peace’, but rather as the extension of ‘cosmopolitan exploitation’ in the guise of ‘universal brotherhood’. Indeed, if cosmopolitanism were merely an expression of bourgeois class interests, then it would inevitably give way to a different kind of global brotherhood, one that transcended the nation-state in the name of a united proletariat. (Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism and the Jews of East Central Europe, 2016)
Edited by Michael Miller andScott Ury
Unlike Kant, Marx did not view the interdependence of nations as a prerequisite for ‘perpetual peace’, but rather as the extension of ‘cosmopolitan exploitation’ in the guise of ‘universal brotherhood’. Indeed, if cosmopolitanism were merely an expression of bourgeois class interests, then it would inevitably give way to a different kind of global brotherhood, one that transcended the nation-state in the name of a united proletariat. (Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism and the Jews of East Central Europe, 2016)
(To learn more about Marx and Engels, see our guide “What is Marxism?”)
In cultural studies, cosmopolitanism has been seen by some critics as erasing the identities of different individuals through its emphasis on global citizenship. As Brock states,
One fear about cosmopolitanism is that it might give too little weight to (or possibly even ignore) people’s important affiliations and identities, especially those that stem from their membership in states. (“Cosmopolitanism,” The Bloomsbury Companion to Political Philosophy, 2015)
Edited by Andrew Fiala
One fear about cosmopolitanism is that it might give too little weight to (or possibly even ignore) people’s important affiliations and identities, especially those that stem from their membership in states. (“Cosmopolitanism,” The Bloomsbury Companion to Political Philosophy, 2015)
As such, critics of this cosmopolitan outlook argue that the negation of distinct cultural identities may result in a dilution of different cultures and that even customs and traditions may be overshadowed by dominant (Western) cultural norms.
As Gavin Kendall, Ian Woodward, and Zlatko Skrbis attest,
The cosmopolitan project can only proceed, and succeed, if it does not deny the relevance of the local/national, if it is not blinded by abstract universalism, if it does not see contradiction between local and cosmopolitan belonging, and if it recognizes that cosmopolitanism is a project and not a nirvana-like state of social existence and harmony. (The Sociology of Cosmopolitanism, 2009)
Gavin Kendall, Ian Woodward, and Zlatko Skrbis
The cosmopolitan project can only proceed, and succeed, if it does not deny the relevance of the local/national, if it is not blinded by abstract universalism, if it does not see contradiction between local and cosmopolitan belonging, and if it recognizes that cosmopolitanism is a project and not a nirvana-like state of social existence and harmony. (The Sociology of Cosmopolitanism, 2009)
However, as Stan van Hooft explains, cosmopolitanism’s minimization of difference is not necessarily a bad thing:
A more positive conception of cosmopolitanism would be one that urges us to accord all people equal respect. Once again, this does not imply that we should ignore the differences between people on the bases of which it is legitimate to discriminate between them, such as their accomplishments, but it does suggest that even the least deserving should be given a level of respect that rules out, for example, exploitation or neglect. (Cosmopolitanism: A Philosophy for Global Ethics, 2014)
Stan van Hooft
A more positive conception of cosmopolitanism would be one that urges us to accord all people equal respect. Once again, this does not imply that we should ignore the differences between people on the bases of which it is legitimate to discriminate between them, such as their accomplishments, but it does suggest that even the least deserving should be given a level of respect that rules out, for example, exploitation or neglect. (Cosmopolitanism: A Philosophy for Global Ethics, 2014)
The future of cosmopolitanism
While cosmopolitanism has been critiqued on both theoretical and practical grounds, many scholars acknowledge its potential in today’s world, advocating for the development of the concept, rather than abandoning the cosmopolitan project altogether. David Held explains, for example, that the focus of cosmopolitanism needs to be the introduction of a framework that focuses on reducing economic vulnerability. He further argues such measures should be combined with a Tobin tax for financial markets and a shift from military expenditure to “the alleviation of severe need” (Held, 2013). Held adds that
In the end, whether cosmopolitan rules and regulations can be pursued successfully in the long term remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: the modern territorial state was not built in a generation, and one should not expect major and equally significant transformations – in this case to a multilevel, multilayered cosmopolitan polity – to take less time. (2013)
Jan-Christoph Heilinger similarly argues that, while there is evidence in recent years of “an anti-cosmopolitan ethos” and the “rise of parochialism and nationalism,” there is still a place in the world for cosmopolitanism:
No matter whether we like it or not, today we live in a global sphere of mutual influence, and mutual effects are inevitable; the circumstances of cosmopolitanism are an undeniable fact of our time. We are all in this together. This makes it imperative to develop and foster a rationally justified, emotionally felt, socially embedded and action-guiding cosmopolitan ethos of responsibility, no matter how bad the current odds stand. Every individual is thus faced with the existential choice of being part of the problem or part of the solution—acknowledging equality, connectedness, and responsibility in what one does. (Cosmopolitan Responsibility, 2019)
Jan-Christoph Heilinger
No matter whether we like it or not, today we live in a global sphere of mutual influence, and mutual effects are inevitable; the circumstances of cosmopolitanism are an undeniable fact of our time. We are all in this together. This makes it imperative to develop and foster a rationally justified, emotionally felt, socially embedded and action-guiding cosmopolitan ethos of responsibility, no matter how bad the current odds stand. Every individual is thus faced with the existential choice of being part of the problem or part of the solution—acknowledging equality, connectedness, and responsibility in what one does. (Cosmopolitan Responsibility, 2019)
As global challenges such as climate change, economic inequality, and human rights violations demand collective action, cosmopolitan ideals of universal humanity, and global citizenship continue to resonate. Ultimately, the future of cosmopolitanism hinges on our willingness to work towards universal equality and approach global challenges with collaborative solutions.
Further reading on Perlego
A Cosmopolitanism of Nations (2009) edited by Stefano Recchia and Nadia Urbinati
On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness (2003) by Jacques Derrida
Colored Cosmopolitanism (2012) by Nico Slate
From Cosmopolitanism to Human Rights (2022) by Olivier de Frouville
Cosmopolitanism FAQs
What is cosmopolitanism in simple terms?
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What are some examples of cosmopolitanism in practice?
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PhD, English Literature (Lancaster University)
Sophie Raine has a PhD from Lancaster University. Her work focuses on penny dreadfuls and urban spaces. Her previous publications have been featured in VPFA (2019; 2022) and the Palgrave Handbook for Steam Age Gothic (2021) and her co-edited collection Penny Dreadfuls and the Gothic was released in 2023 with University of Wales Press.