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104-458: 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.). 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. The word derives from

208-803: A Nana of the Ashanti people , he is a direct descendant of Osei Tutu , the warrior emperor of pre-colonial Ghana, whose reigning successor, the Asantehene , is a distant relative of the Appiah family. Also among his African ancestors is the Ashanti nobleman Nana Akroma-Ampim I of Nyaduom , a warrior whose name the Professor now bears. He lives with his husband, Henry Finder, an editorial director of The New Yorker , in an apartment in Manhattan, and

312-540: A metonym for empire, has also been re-interpreted in the modern age as a conception of cosmopolitanism, and was used by 1930s modernists as the title of a Shanghai -based, English-language journal of world arts and letters T'ien Hsia Monthly . 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 Diogenes

416-643: A Jewish gymnasium before departing for France, where he commenced his university education. Levinas began his philosophical studies at the University of Strasbourg in 1923, and his lifelong friendship with the French philosopher Maurice Blanchot . In 1928, he went to the University of Freiburg for two semesters to study phenomenology under Edmund Husserl . At Freiburg he also met Martin Heidegger , whose philosophy greatly impressed him. Levinas would in

520-484: A World of Strangers (2006), Appiah introduces two ideas that "intertwine in the notion of cosmopolitanism" (Emerging, 69). The first is the idea that we have obligations to others that are bigger than just sharing citizenship. The second idea is that we should never take for granted the value of life and become informed of the practices and beliefs of others. Kwame Appiah frequents university campuses to speak to students. One request he makes is, "See one movie with subtitles

624-581: A World of Strangers (2006). He has been a close collaborator with Henry Louis Gates Jr. , with whom he edited Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience . Appiah was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995. In 2008, Appiah published Experiments in Ethics , in which he reviews the relevance of empirical research to ethical theory. In

728-458: 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 an ever-higher level, then all discrepancy between national and human morals would be excluded. … The more societies concentrate their energies inwards, on

832-623: A certain sense to which I shall return, transnational, postmodern culture is global – though that emphatically does not mean that it is the culture of every person in the world." Appiah has been influenced by the cosmopolitanist philosophical tradition, which stretches from German thinkers such as G. W. F. Hegel to African American thinkers like W. E. B. Du Bois , among others. In his article "Education for Global Citizenship", Appiah outlines his conception of cosmopolitanism. He therein defines cosmopolitanism as "universality plus difference". Building from this definition, he asserts that

936-424: A cosmopolitan world moving beyond today's conception of nation-states. These scholars argue that a truly cosmopolitan identity within global citizenship will take hold, diminishing the importance of national identities. The formation of a global citizens movement would lead to the establishment of democratic global institutions, creating the space for global political discourse and decisions, would in turn reinforce

1040-403: 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 utilize 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. Other authors imagine

1144-651: A cosmopolitan's role is to appeal to "our own" government to ensure that these nation-states respect, provide for, and protect their citizens. If they will not, "we" are obliged to change their minds; if they cannot, "we" are obliged to provide assistance, but only our "fair share," that is, not at the expense of our own comfort, or the comfort of those "nearest and dearest" to us. Appiah's early philosophical work dealt with probabilistic semantics and theories of meaning , but his more recent books have tackled philosophical problems of race and racism , identity , and moral theory. His current work tackles three major areas: 1.

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1248-457: A failure of Gilroy's theory to address the practical difficulties of estranging oneself from the familiar. The Venus Project , an international, multidisciplinary educational organization created by Jacque Fresco , works to spread cosmopolitan ideas by transcending artificial boundaries currently separating people and emphasizing an understanding of our interdependence with nature and each other. Some forms of cosmopolitanism also fail to address

1352-621: 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: A number of philosophers, including Emmanuel Levinas , have introduced

1456-516: A home in Pennington, New Jersey with a small sheep farm. Appiah has written about what it was like growing up gay in Ghana. Appiah became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1997. His nephew is the actor Adetomiwa Edun . Appiah taught philosophy and African-American studies at the University of Ghana , Cornell , Yale , Harvard , and Princeton Universities from 1981 to 1988. Until 2014, he

1560-443: A journey to different sites of great suffering that ultimately leads him toward developing compassion. In "The Planet", Paul Gilroy explores how the construction and naturalization of race and the hierarchies produced by difference shape the hatred of others. It is the deconstruction of these ideologies that can lead to the compassion and humanization of others. Thus individual responsibility is being aware of what Judith Butler calls

1664-584: A meaningful direction and orientation. Levinas's thesis "ethics as first philosophy", then, means that the traditional philosophical pursuit of knowledge is secondary to a basic ethical duty to the other. To meet the Other is to have the idea of Infinity. The elderly Levinas was a distinguished French public intellectual, whose books reportedly sold well. He had a major influence on the younger, but more well-known Jacques Derrida , whose seminal Writing and Difference contains an essay, "Violence and Metaphysics", that

1768-857: A medieval French rabbi, every Shabbat morning at the Jewish high school in Paris where he was the principal. This tradition strongly influenced many generations of students. Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne , renowned Belgian filmmakers, have referred to Levinas as an important underpinning for their filmmaking ethics. In his book Levinas and the Cinema of Redemption: Time, Ethics, and the Feminine , author Sam B. Girgus argues that Levinas has dramatically affected films involving redemption. Magician Derren Brown 's A Book of Secrets references Levinas. A full bibliography of all Levinas's publications up until 1981

1872-503: A mirror image to Eurocentric constructions of race and a preoccupation with the ancient world. Appiah also finds an irony in the conception that if the source of the West lies in ancient Egypt via Greece , then "its legacy of ethnocentrism is presumably one of our moral liabilities." Emmanuel Levinas Emmanuel Levinas ( / ˈ l ɛ v ɪ n æ s / ; French: [ɛmanɥɛl levinas] ; 12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995)

1976-493: A month." In Lies that Bind (2018), Appiah attempts to deconstruct identities of creed, colour, country, and class. Appiah has been a critic of contemporary theories of Afrocentrism . In his 1997 essay "Europe Upside Down: Fallacies of the New Afrocentrism", he argues that current Afrocentricism is striking for "how thoroughly at home it is in the frameworks of nineteenth century European thought", particularly as

2080-440: A notebook. These jottings were later developed into his book De l'Existence à l'Existant (1947) and a series of lectures published under the title Le Temps et l'Autre (1948). His wartime notebooks have now been published in their original form as Œuvres: Tome 1, Carnets de captivité: suivi de Écrits sur la captivité; et, Notes philosophiques diverses (2009). Meanwhile, Maurice Blanchot helped Levinas's wife and daughter spend

2184-513: 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

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2288-567: A private Jewish High School in Paris, the École normale Israélite orientale (Paris)  [ fr ] , eventually becoming its director. He participated in 1957 at the International Meeting at the monastery of Toumliline , a conference focused on contemporary challenges and interfaith dialogue. Levinas began teaching at the University of Poitiers in 1961, at the Nanterre campus of the University of Paris in 1967, and at

2392-408: A privileged phenomenon in which the other person's proximity and distance are both strongly felt. "The Other precisely reveals himself in his alterity not in a shock negating the I, but as the primordial phenomenon of gentleness." At the same time, the revelation of the face makes a demand, and this demand is before one can express or know one's freedom to affirm or deny. One instantly recognizes

2496-518: A renewed model for global citizenship : institutional cosmopolitanism. It advocates some reforms in global governance to allow world citizens to take more directly a part into political life. A number of proposals have been made in order to make this possible. Cosmopolitan democracy , for example, suggests strengthening the United Nations and other international organizations by creating a World Parliamentary Assembly. "Cosmopolitanism" became

2600-399: A rhetorical weapon used by nationalists against "alien" ideas that went counter to orthodoxy. European Jews were frequently accused of being "rootless cosmopolitans." 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

2704-618: 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". 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

2808-594: A social, ethical enterprise and a cultural enterprise. In "The Planet", Gilroy describes the cases of Tom Hurndall and Rachel Corrie ; each seems to exemplify what might be considered Gilroy's figure of the cosmopolitan. Both Hurndall and Corrie removed themselves (geographically) from their home cultures, presumably both physically and mentally estranging themselves from their own cultures and histories. Hurndall and Corrie were both killed in 2003 (in separate incidents). Gilroy's model of estrangement might actually undermine itself through its examples; this might be construed as

2912-434: 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. The proximity of

3016-506: A threat to Russian nationalism, and also 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. Kwame Anthony Appiah Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah FRSL ( / ˈ æ p i ɑː / AP -ee-ah ; born 8 May 1954)

3120-415: A triangulation point in that he remains neutral about multiculturalism, but his philosophical analysis of truth and practice can be deployed to argue against Searle and in favor of Taylor. At a conference on "Philosophy in a Multicultural Context", Rasmus Winther excavated the philosophical assumptions and practices connected with cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism. He develops Bruno Latour 's conception of

3224-400: 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

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3328-610: A world without sovereign nation-states, territorially organized in small autonomous but not-sovereign cantonal polities, complemented by strong world organizations. Criticizing the abstract nature of most versions of cosmopolitanism, Charles Blattberg has argued that any viable cosmopolitanism must be "rooted," by which he means based upon a "global patriotism." More general philosophical reviews of cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism are also available. Carol Nicholson compares John Searle 's opposition to multiculturalism with Charles Taylor 's celebration of it. She uses Richard Rorty as

3432-457: Is a British-American philosopher and writer who has written about political philosophy , ethics , the philosophy of language and mind , and African intellectual history . Appiah is Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University , where he joined the faculty in 2014. He was previously the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University . Appiah

3536-666: Is a descendant of John Winthrop and the New England Winthrop family of Boston Brahmins as one of his ancestors, Robert Winthrop, was a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War and migrated to England, becoming a distinguished Vice Admiral in the Royal Navy . Through Isobel, he is also descended from the British pharmacist James Crossley Eno . Through Professor Appiah's father,

3640-591: Is a very good thing), is a very limited concept. (Derrida cited in Bennington 1997). A further state of cosmopolitanism occurred after the Second World War . As a reaction to the Holocaust and other atrocities, the concept of crimes against humanity became a generally accepted category in international law. This clearly shows the appearance and acceptance of a notion of individual responsibility that

3744-450: Is as though I were responsible for his mortality, and guilty for surviving." The moral "authority" of the face of the Other is felt in my "infinite responsibility" for the Other. The face of the Other comes towards me with its infinite moral demands while emerging out of the trace. Apart from this morally imposing emergence, the Other’s face might well be adequately addressed as "Thou" (along

3848-437: Is considered to exist toward all of humankind. Philosophical cosmopolitans are moral universalists : they believe that all humans, and not merely compatriots or fellow-citizens, come under the same moral standards. The boundaries between nations, states, cultures or societies are therefore morally irrelevant. A widely cited example of a contemporary cosmopolitan is Kwame Anthony Appiah. Some philosophers and scholars argue that

3952-576: 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. The ancient Chinese philosopher Mozi in preserved scripts said that "universal love and mutual benefit" could be attained "to regard other people's countries as one's own". The Chinese term tianxia (all under Heaven),

4056-542: Is of the highest importance to know whether we are not duped by morality." This idea appears in his thoughts on recurrence (chapter 4 in Otherwise than Being ), in which Levinas maintains that subjectivity is formed in and through subjection to the other. Subjectivity, Levinas argued, is primordially ethical, not theoretical: that is to say, responsibility for the other is not a derivative feature of subjectivity, but instead, founds subjective being-in-the-world by giving it

4160-608: Is the detective in the novel. Appiah's second and third novels are Nobody Likes Letitia and Another Death in Venice . Appiah has been nominated for, or received, several honours. He was the 2009 finalist in the arts and humanities for the Eugene R. Gannon Award for the Continued Pursuit of Human Advancement. In 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine on its list of top global thinkers. On 13 February 2012, Appiah

4264-515: 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 of cosmopolitanism usually begin with the Greek etymology of "citizen of the world". However, as Appiah points out, "world" in

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4368-652: The Sorbonne in 1973, from which he retired in 1979. He published his second major philosophical work, Autrement qu'être ou au-delà de l'essence , in 1974. He was also a professor at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland . In 1989 he was awarded the Balzan Prize for Philosophy. According to his obituary in The New York Times , Levinas came to regret his early enthusiasm for Heidegger, after

4472-553: The World Social Forum ; and so on. Globalization , a more common term, typically refers more narrowly to the economic and trade relations and misses the broader cultural, social, political, environmental, demographic, values and knowledge transitions taking place. Thich Nhat Hanh discusses what he calls "Interbeing" as a way of living one's life in relation to others; "Interbeing" might easily be compared to cosmopolitanism. Nhat Hanh's philosophical beliefs are grounded in

4576-560: The "marketplace" that is the capital-driven modern world. However, when capitalism is introduced and it does not "take off" as in the Western world , the livelihood of the peoples involved is at stake. Thus, the ethical questions involved are certainly complex, yet the general impression in Appiah's "Kindness to Strangers" is one which implies that it is not up to "us" to save the poor and starving, but up to their own governments. Nation-states must assume responsibility for their citizens, and

4680-401: The "wisdom of love" rather than the "love of wisdom" (the usual translation of the Greek "φιλοσοφία"). In his view, responsibility towards the Other precedes any "objective searching after truth". Levinas derives the primacy of his ethics from the experience of the encounter with the Other. For Levinas, the irreducible relation, the epiphany, of the face-to-face , the encounter with another, is

4784-432: The 2000s brought a reevaluation of the possible misogyny of his account of the feminine, as well as a critical engagement with his French nationalism in the context of colonialism. Among the most prominent of these are critiques by Simon Critchley and Stella Sandford . However, there have also been responses which argue that these critiques of Levinas are misplaced. For three decades, Levinas gave short talks on Rashi ,

4888-411: The 20th Century: Bergson and Lévinas." His work has been a source of controversy since the 1950s, when Simone de Beauvoir criticized his account of the subject as being necessarily masculine, as defined against a feminine other. While other feminist philosophers like Tina Chanter and the artist-thinker Bracha L. Ettinger have defended him against this charge, increasing interest in his work in

4992-462: The Christian tradition, also a certain call for a citizen of the world as, precisely, a brother. St. Paul says that we are all brothers, that is sons of God, so we are not foreigners, we belong to the world as citizens of the world; and it is this tradition that we could follow up until Kant for instance, in whose concept of cosmopolitanism we find the conditions for hospitality. But in the concept of

5096-708: The English statesman Sir Stafford Cripps . Appiah's mother's family has a long political tradition: Sir Stafford was a nephew of Beatrice Webb and was Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer (1947–1950) under Clement Attlee ; his father, Charles Cripps , was Labour Leader of the House of Lords (1929–31) as Lord Parmoor in Ramsay MacDonald 's government; Parmoor had been a Conservative MP before defecting to Labour. Through his grandmother Isobel Cripps , Appiah

5200-694: The Making of Race and Nation in Canada," where she discusses a discourse in which Muslim people fall into a good/bad dichotomy: a "good Muslim" is one who has been Westernized and a "bad Muslim" is one who visibly rejects Western cultural influences. Thobani notes that it is through media representations that these ideas become naturalized. Individuals who embrace Western ideals are considered fully "human" and are more likely to be afforded dignity and protection than those who defend their non-Westernized cultural identities . According to those who follow Beck's reasoning,

5304-475: 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

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5408-506: The Other in a situation of utterly asymmetrical obligations: I owe the Other everything, the Other owes me nothing. The trace of the Other is the heavy shadow of God, the God who commands, " Thou shalt not kill !" Levinas takes great pains to avoid straightforward theological language. The very metaphysics of signification subtending theological language is suspected and suspended by evocations of how traces work differently than signs. Nevertheless,

5512-468: The Other is an important part of Levinas's concept: the face of the Other is what compels the response. For Derrida, the foundation of ethics is hospitality, the readiness and the inclination to welcome the Other into one's home. Ethics, he claims, is hospitality. Pure, unconditional hospitality is a desire that underscores the conditional hospitality necessary in our relationships with others. Levinas's and Derrida's theories of ethics and hospitality hold out

5616-456: 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. 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

5720-579: The Second World War, he studied the Talmud under the enigmatic Monsieur Chouchani , whose influence he acknowledged only late in his life. Levinas's first book-length essay, Totality and Infinity (1961), was written as his Doctorat d'État primary thesis (roughly equivalent to a Habilitation thesis). His secondary thesis was titled Études sur la phénoménologie ( Studies on Phenomenology ). After earning his habilitation, Levinas taught at

5824-710: The US, Germany, Ghana and South Africa, and Paris. Until the fall of 2009, he served as a trustee of Ashesi University College in Accra, Ghana . Since 2014, he has been a professor of philosophy and law at NYU. His Cambridge dissertation explored the foundations of probabilistic semantics . In 1992, Appiah published In My Father's House , which won the Herskovitz Prize for African Studies in English. Among his later books are Colour Conscious (with Amy Gutmann ), The Ethics of Identity (2005), and Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in

5928-784: The Western edge of the Russian Empire . Because of the disruptions of World War I , the family moved to Kharkiv in Ukraine in 1916, where they stayed during the Russian revolutions of February and October 1917. In 1920 his family returned to the Republic of Lithuania. Levinas's early education was in secular, Russian-language schools in Kaunas and Kharkiv. Upon his family's return to the Republic of Lithuania, Levinas spent two years at

6032-417: The advance of globalization and the increased facility of travel and communication, some thinkers consider that the political system based on the nation-state has become obsolete and that it is time to design a better and more efficient alternative. Jesús Mosterín analyzes how the world political system should be organized in order to maximize individual freedom and individual opportunity. Rejecting as muddled

6136-399: 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

6240-501: The contemporary workings of humanism" (32). Thus, there is the idea that not all "human" lives will be supported in the same way, indeed, that some human lives are worth more protection than others. Others have extended this idea to examine how animals might be reconfigured as cosmopolitan, present the world-over with varying identities in different places. This idea is reiterated in Sunera Thobani 's "Exalted Subjects: Studies in

6344-486: The cosmopolitical in Kant there are a number of conditions: first of all you should, of course, welcome the stranger, the foreigner, to the extent that he is a citizen of another country, that you grant him the right to visit and not to stay, and there are a number of other conditions that I can't summarise here quickly, but this concept of the cosmopolitical which is very novel, very worthy of respect (and I think cosmopolitanism

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6448-434: The divinity of the trace is also undeniable: "the trace is not just one more word: it is the proximity of God in the countenance of my fellowman." In a sense, it is divine commandment without divine authority. Following Totality and Infinity , Levinas later argued that responsibility for the other is rooted within the subjective constitution. The first line of the preface of this book is "everyone will readily agree that it

6552-760: The early 1930s be one of the first French intellectuals to draw attention to Heidegger and Husserl by translating, in 1931, Husserl's Cartesian Meditations (with the help of Gabrielle Peiffer and with advice from Alexandre Koyré ) and by drawing on their ideas in his own philosophy, in works such as La théorie de l'intuition dans la phénoménologie de Husserl ( The Theory of Intuition in Husserl's Phenomenology ; his 1929/30 doctoral thesis ), De l'Existence à l'Existant ( From Existence to Existents ; 1947), and En Découvrant l’Existence avec Husserl et Heidegger ( Discovering Existence with Husserl and Heidegger ; first edition, 1949, with additions, 1967). In 1929 he

6656-468: The efficacy of intellectual interchange. From this position he views organisations such as UNICEF and Oxfam in two lights: on the one hand he seems to appreciate the immediate action these organisations provide while on the other he points out their long-term futility. His focus is, instead, on the long-term political and economic development of nations according to the Western capitalist / democratic model, an approach that relies on continued growth in

6760-555: The familiar as the criterion" for valuing others? If one values the familiar more than the foreign, what are the consequences? Paul Gilroy offers a possible alternative to this emphasis on familiarity arguing that "methodical cultivation of a degree of estrangement from one's own culture and history ... might qualify as essential to a cosmopolitan commitment." This estrangement entails a "process of exposure to otherness" in order to foster "the irreducible value of diversity within sameness." For Gilroy, being cosmopolitan seems to involve both

6864-527: The first images of our fragile planet floating in the vastness of space; the emergence of global warming and other ecological threats to our collective existence; new global institutions such as the United Nations , World Trade Organization , or International Criminal Court ; the rise of transnational corporations and integration of markets often termed economic globalization ; the emergence of global NGOs and transnational social movements, such as

6968-633: The first takes precedence over the latter, that is: different cultures are respected "not because cultures matter in themselves, but because people matter, and culture matters to people." But Appiah first defined it as its problems but ultimately determines that practising a citizenship of the world and conversation is not only helpful in a post-9/11 world. Therefore, according to Appiah's take on this ideology, cultural differences are to be respected in so far as they are not harmful to people and in no way conflict with our universal concern for every human's life and well-being. In his book Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in

7072-426: 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. In addition, cosmopolitanism calls for equal protection of the environment and against the negative side effects of technological development. Human dignity, however, is convoluted because it is necessary to first distinguish who has

7176-419: The importance of considering how best to interact with the Other and others, and what is at stake. Derrida in an interview with Bennington (1997) summarized "cosmopolitanism", There is a tradition of cosmopolitanism, and if we had time we could study this tradition, which comes to us from, on the one hand, Greek thought with the Stoics, who have a concept of the 'citizen of the world'. You also have St. Paul in

7280-405: The imposition of Western cultural norms, democracy and Christianity to name only two, has historically resulted in nationalist violence; however, Appiah has implied that democracy is a pre-requisite for cosmopolitan intervention in developing nations. Much of the political thinking of the last two centuries has taken nationalism and the framework of the sovereign nation-state for granted. With

7384-504: 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

7488-434: 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. Television journalist Jeff Greenfield believes that in the 21st century cosmopolitanism was viewed by Vladimir Putin in as

7592-596: 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

7696-553: The latter joined the Nazis . Levinas explicitly framed several of his mature philosophical works as attempts to respond to Heidegger's philosophy in light of its ethical failings. His son is the composer Michaël Levinas , and his son-in-law is the French mathematician Georges Hansel . Among his most famous students is Rabbi Baruch Garzon from Tetouan (Morocco), who studied with Levinas at the Sorbonne, and later went on to become one of

7800-550: The lines proposed by Martin Buber ) in whose welcoming countenance I might find great comfort, love and communion of souls—but not a moral demand bearing down upon me from a height. "Through a trace the irreversible past takes on the profile of a ‘He.’ The beyond from which a face comes is in the third person." It is because the Other also emerges from the illeity of a He ( il in French) that I instead fall into infinite debt vis-à-vis

7904-427: 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

8008-427: The metaphysical notion of free will, he focuses on political freedom, the absence of coercion or interference by others in personal decisions. Because of the tendencies to violence and aggression that lurk in human nature, some constraint on freedom is necessary for peaceful and fruitful social interaction. Especially, there is no rational ground for curtailing the cultural freedoms (of language, religion and customs) in

8112-623: The most important Rabbis of the Spanish-speaking world. In the 1950s, Levinas emerged from the circle of intellectuals surrounding the philosopher Jean Wahl as a leading French thinker. His work is based on the ethics of the Other or, in Levinas's terms, on "ethics as first philosophy". For Levinas, the Other is not knowable and cannot be made into an object of the self, as is done by traditional metaphysics (which Levinas called " ontology "). Levinas prefers to think of philosophy as

8216-509: The name of the nation, the church, or the party. From this point of view, the Internet provides a much more attractive model than the nation-state. Neither is there any just reason for restraining the free circulation of people, ideas, or goods. Mosterín thinks that the nation-state is incompatible with the full development of freedom, whose blossoming requires the reorganization of the world political system along cosmopolitan lines. He proposes

8320-418: The notion of citizenship at a global level. Nested structures of governance balancing the principles of irreducibility (i.e., the notion that certain problems can only be addressed at the global level, such as global warming ) and subsidiarity (i.e., the notion that decisions should be made at as local a level possible) would thus form the basis for a cosmopolitan political order. Daniele Archibugi proposes

8424-425: The objective and subjective conditions arising in today's unique historical moment, an emerging planetary phase of civilization , creates a latent potential for the emergence of a cosmopolitan identity as global citizens and possible formation of a global citizens movement . These emerging objective and subjective conditions in the planetary phase include improved and affordable telecommunications; space travel and

8528-527: The only ones benefitting from this partnership are well-placed individuals and not the nation itself. Others highlighted the importance of moving beyond Western liberal values. Drawing on classical realism, they consider liberalism insufficient to promote equality between nations, breaking the iron laws of competition between states; instead, they look at Byzantine and other pre-modern cultures. Likewise, Mahmood Mamdani in Good Muslim, Bad Muslim suggests that

8632-612: The original sense meant "cosmos" or "universe", not earth or globe as current use assumes. In the United States , two forms of cosmopolitanism have been established. For one, there is a political cosmopolitan nationalism that has defined and constructed other races . On the other hand, ethno-cultural cosmopolitanism that celebrates multiculturalism has benefited from an upswing in the United States after World War II . A definition of cosmopolitanism that handles this issue

8736-541: The philosopher as public diplomat. 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 society, and these foundations are closely related to human rights and individual nation's constitutions. A society's sacred object would be

8840-488: The philosophical foundations of liberalism ; 2. the questioning of methods in arriving at knowledge about values ; and 3. the connections between theory and practice in moral life, all of which concepts can also be found in his book Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers . On postmodern culture , Appiah writes, "Postmodern culture is the culture in which all postmodernisms operate, sometimes in synergy, sometimes in competition; and because contemporary culture is, in

8944-641: 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

9048-414: The possibility of an acceptance of the Other as different but of equal standing. Isolation is not a feasible alternative in the world, therefore, it is important to consider how best to approach these interactions, and to determine what is at stake for ourselves and the others: what conditions of hospitality to impose, and whether or not we have responded to the call of the Other. Further, both theories reveal

9152-604: The potential for economic colonization by powerful countries over less powerful ones. Frantz Fanon , in The Wretched of the Earth , observes that when nations achieved independence from European colonizers, frequently there was no system in place to secure their economic future, and they became "manager[s] for Western enterprise...in practise set[ting] up its country as the brothel of Europe." When "third world" nations are drawn into economic partnerships with global capital, ostensibly to improve their national quality of life, often

9256-479: The precariousness of life in self and other; being a cosmopolitan seems to be, above all, a social, ethical enterprise. In Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers , Kwame Anthony Appiah notes how social ethics seem to operate: Whatever obligation one might have to another, especially a foreign other, that obligation does not supersede the obligations one has to those people most familiar to them. However, as Judith Butler questions, "at what cost do I establish

9360-621: The precepts of Buddhist teachings, which involve compassion and understanding to protect and live in harmony with all people, animals, plants, and minerals. He further describes what he calls "Mindfulness Training of the Order of Interbeing" as being aware of sufferings created by, but not limited to, the following causes: fanaticism and intolerances that disrupt compassion and living in harmony with others; indoctrination of narrow-minded beliefs; imposition of views; anger; and miscommunication. Understanding and compassion for others seems to be achieved by

9464-523: The right to be respected and second to consider what rights are protectable. Under cosmopolitanism, all humans have rights; however, history shows that recognition of these rights is not guaranteed. As an example, Judith Butler discusses a Western discourse of "human" in Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence . Butler works through the idea of "human" and notes that "human" has been "naturalized in its 'Western' mold by

9568-476: The same year, he was recognised for his contributions to racial, ethnic, and religious relations when Brandeis University awarded him the first Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize . As well as his academic work, Appiah has also published several works of fiction. His first novel, Avenging Angel , set at the University of Cambridge , involved a murder among the Cambridge Apostles ; Sir Patrick Scott

9672-475: The transcendence and heteronomy of the Other. Even murder fails as an attempt to take hold of this otherness. While critical of traditional theology, Levinas does require that a "trace" of the Divine be acknowledged within an ethics of Otherness. This is especially evident in his thematization of debt and guilt. "A face is a trace of itself, given over to my responsibility, but to which I am wanting and faulty. It

9776-400: The understanding of others' suffering and the root causes of suffering. Therefore, to be responsible is to recognize and understand suffering, which then leads to compassion. It is through this process that others can be recognized as people. Other theorists, philosophers, and activists contend that recognizing suffering is necessary to end violence. In Scared Sacred , Velcrow Ripper takes

9880-572: The war in a monastery, thus sparing them from the Holocaust. Blanchot, at considerable personal risk, also saw to it that Levinas was able to keep in contact with his immediate family through letters and other messages. Other members of Levinas's family were not so fortunate; his mother-in-law was deported and never heard from again, while his father and brothers were killed by the SS in Lithuania. After

9984-484: 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 homogeneous 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 –

10088-533: Was a French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry who is known for his work within Jewish philosophy , existentialism , and phenomenology , focusing on the relationship of ethics to metaphysics and ontology . Emanuelis Levinas (later adapted to French orthography as Emmanuel Levinas) was born in 1906 into a middle-class Litvak family in Kaunas , in present-day Lithuania , then Kovno district, at

10192-523: Was awarded his doctorate ( Doctorat d'université degree) by the University of Strasbourg for his thesis on the meaning of intuition in the philosophy of Husserl, published in 1930. Levinas became a naturalized French citizen in 1939. When France declared war on Germany, he reported for military duty as a translator of Russian and French. During the German invasion of France in 1940, his military unit

10296-729: Was awarded the National Humanities Medal at a ceremony at the White House . Appiah currently chairs the jury for the Berggruen Prize , and serves on the Berggruen Institute 's Philosophy & Culture Center's Academic Board. He was elected as President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in January 2022. Appiah argues that the formative denotation of culture is preceded by

10400-496: Was elected President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in January 2022. Appiah was born in London, England, to Peggy Cripps Appiah (née Cripps), an English art historian and writer, and Joe Appiah , a lawyer , diplomat , and politician from Ashanti Region, Ghana . For two years (1970–1972) Joe Appiah was the leader of a new opposition party that was made by the country's three opposing parties. Simultaneously, he

10504-506: Was instrumental in expanding interest in Levinas in France and abroad. Derrida also delivered a eulogy at Levinas's funeral, later published as Adieu à Emmanuel Levinas , an appreciation and exploration of Levinas's moral philosophy. In a memorial essay for Levinas, Jean-Luc Marion claimed that "If one defines a great philosopher as someone without whom philosophy would not have been what it is, then in France there are two great philosophers of

10608-560: Was surrounded and forced to surrender. Levinas spent the rest of World War II as a prisoner of war in a camp near Hanover in Germany . Levinas was assigned to a special barrack for Jewish prisoners, who were forbidden any form of religious worship. Life in the Fallingbostel camp was difficult, but his status as a prisoner of war protected him from the Holocaust 's concentration camps. Other prisoners saw him frequently jotting in

10712-684: Was the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton (with a cross-appointment at the University Center for Human Values) and also was the Bacon-Kilkenny Professor of Law at Fordham University in the fall of 2008. Appiah also served on the board of PEN American Center and was on a panel of judges for the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award . He has lectured at many other institutions in

10816-661: Was the president of the Ghana Bar Association . Between 1977 and 1978, he was Ghana's representative at the United Nations. Kwame Anthony Appiah was raised in Kumasi, Ghana , and educated at Bryanston School and Clare College, Cambridge , where he earned his BA ( First Class ) and PhD degrees in philosophy. He has three sisters: Isobel, Adwoa and Abena. As a child, he spent a good deal of time in England, staying with his grandmother Dame Isobel Cripps , widow of

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