Home > Cosmopolitanism

In the realms of social and political philosophy, cosmopolitanism is the idea that all of humanity creates a single moral community. For this reason the implementation of a world government would be morally right and ultimately just, and ideologies like patriotism and nationalism would fade away. Cosmopolitan philosophers ascribe differing degrees of power to this hypothetical government, and the loosening of national borders from moderate to extreme.

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 natureState of nature is a term in political philosophy used to describe the hypothetical or empirical condition of humanity when or if government did not exist. Alternately, a state of nature is the condition before the rule of law comes into being. Some have, and in order to avoid conflicts and injustices, a " social contractSocial contract is a phrase used in philosophy, political science, and sociology to denote a real or hypothetical agreement within a state regarding the rights and responsibilities of the state and its citizens, or more generally a similar concord between" should be established among them.

Some critics of cosmopolitanism suggest that national affiliations are important to persons' identitiesIn philosophy, identity is the quality of being "the same as". It is of particular interest to logicians and metaphysicians. Logic In logic, the identity relation is normally, (by definition), the transitive, symmetric, and reflexive relation that holds o, 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 conceptA concept is an abstract, universal psychical entity that serves to designate a category or class of entities, events or relations. A concept is the element of a proposition rather in the way that a word is the element of a sentence. Concepts are abstract of loyaltyLoyalty one can surmise, began with fellow-feeling for one's family, gene-group and friends. Loyalty comes most naturally amongst small groups or tribes where the prospect of the whole casting out the individual seems like the ultimate, unthinkable reject describes a virtueVirtue ( Greek alpha;ρετ&eta Latin virtus is the habitual, well-established, readiness or diposition of man's powers directing them to some goodness of act. 1) Virtue is moral excellence of a man or a woman. The word αρε&, and insofar as we do no wrong to people of other nation-states, our priority should be the people of our own.

See also: multiculturalism, cosmopolitan