The Cosmopolitanism Reader

by Garrett W. Brown, Dr Garrett Brown

The world is becoming deeply interconnected, whereby actions in one part of the world can have profound repercussions elsewhere. In a world of overlapping communities of fate, there has been a renewed enthusiasm for thinking about what it is that human beings have in common, and to explore the ethical basis of this. This has led to a renewed interest in examining the normative principles that might underpin efforts to resolve global collective action problems and to ameliorate serious global risks. This project can be referred to as the project of cosmopolitanism. In response to this renewed cosmopolitan enthusiasm, this volume has brought together 25 seminal essays in the development of cosmopolitan thought by some of the world's most distinguished cosmopolitan thinkers and critics. It is divided into six classical cosmopolitanism, global justice, culture and cosmopolitanism, political cosmopolitanism, cosmopolitan global governance and critical examinations. This volume thus provides a thorough and extensive introduction to contemporary cosmopolitan thought and acts as a definitive source for those interested in cosmopolitan thinking and its critics. See also David Held's .

488 pages, Paperback

First published May 24, 2010

Reviews

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology is far more rooted in Kantiano cosmopolitanism than I expected, with no references to Appiah period despite the contemporary nature of his own significant work on Cosmopolitanism. The legal aspects of cosmopolitanism in this work feigns to interest me, but what is present regarding the arguments in favor of cosmopolitanism in reference to culture and the state is useful for helping readers deconstruct their own positioning with the subject matter as they try to deconstruct what exactly cosmopolitanism is.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a better collection than my 3 star rating might give it credit for--but amongst all the essays here theorizing cosmopolitanism there was very little that discussed arguments in favor of open or shared culture, or a cultural commonwealth, which is really what I'm interested in. Most of the essays in this collection are political science/theory essays about building cosmopolitan democracies, dividing sovereignty or authority between multiple layers of democratic authority, or the kinds of global issues that we need specific cosmopolitan political structures to address. Some of the essays were very good--I especially liked Kant, Pogge, and Waldron's essays--but by and large I was looking for something more akin to Appiah's book on Cosmopolitan behavior and the ethics of how we engage with other cultures and worldviews, which isn't what this collection focused on.