Cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitanism

• Emphasizes global citizenship over national and local patriotism
• Values difference and "contamination" as a positive
• Opposes cultural imperialism
• Sometimes differentiated from the kind of multiculturalism that seeks to preserve difference

According to Kwame Appiah (see image at left), "there are two strands that intertwine in the notion of cosmopolitanism. One is the idea that we have obligations to others, obligations that stretch beyond those to whom we are related by the ties of kith and kind, or even the more formal ties of shared citizenship. The other is that we take seriously the value not just of human life but of particular human lives, which means taking an interest in the practices and beliefs that lend them significance. People are different, the cosmopolitan knows, and there is much to learn from out differeces. Because there are so many human possibilities worth exploring, we neither expect nor desire that every person or every society should converge on a single mode of life. Whatever out obligations are to others (or theirs to us) they often have the right to go their own way . . . there will be times when these two ideals--universal concern and respect for legitimate difference--clash. There's a sense in which cosmopolitanism is the name not of the solution but of the challenge"(xv).

Appiah, Kwame. Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 2006.