Cosmopolitanism

Abstract

AbstractBroadly defined, cosmopolitanism is the idea that there are moral duties and obligations owed to all human beings based solely on our humanity alone, without reference to ethnicity, nationality, political association, race, culture, religion or other communal particularities. The etymological origins of cosmopolitanism can be traced back to the Cynic philosopher Diogenes of Sinope (400–323bce), who is reputed to have resisted the idea of city‐state patriotism by claiming that he was not a citizen of any one particular community, but that he waskosmopolites, “a citizen of the world”. By combining two words –kosmos(universal) andpolites(citizen) – Diogenes was suggesting that every person belonged to a universal fraternity of humankind and that all persons should be treated with a sense of dignity and hospitality,as if they werecommon citizens. As is often related, Diogenes substantiated this claim by arguing that every person was a member of the same species and inhabited the same earthly cosmos, and, since this human condition is common to all, it naturally bestows a universal reason to treat every person with a sense of brotherly love and hospitality, regardless of place of birth or political affiliation.