What is meant by the term cosmopolitanism? How might it influence an approach to international politics?

Authors Name

Instructor Name

Subject

Date

What is meant by the term cosmopolitanism ? How might it influence an approach to international politics

Cosmopolitanism is a project of global government (Daniele Archibugi , 2000 : 144

The initiative of cosmopolitanism was invented in response to the decline of local authority in ancient Greece and the advent of the Hellenistic period . This was a period of great disruptions , conquests and uncertainty . The limited bonds of trust that had linked clients to patrons were dissolved together with the power of the cities "The

Greek citizen of this time " Pierre Grimal (1968 ) concludes "was rather similar to the adolescent who realizes for the first time that the world is a bigger place than the contracted confines of family life had led him to believe he was forced to get within himself the support that he no longer found around him and whose presence he intensely missed (pp 10 , 11

Alexander 's conquests had led to the dispersal of Greek culture all through the known world and to the breakdown of the classical difference between Greeks and barbarians . Greek culture , always customized by local conditions , became world culture "Thus a movement began which leaned to separate moral and aesthetic values from their national background , to believe them no longer as part of a heritage which was the right of a few privileged men , but to give them a universal implication (p . 11

A Cypriot of Syrian parentage , Zeno of Citium , the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy , was a member of this movement . And cosmopolitanism--the idea , in brief , that all persons are born equal owing no commitment to local authority but only to universal law-was a product of Zeno 's school . An adaptation of this original cosmopolitanism is contained in the discourses of the later Stoic , Epictetus who , by turns , was a slave , a freedman and an exile

Never in reply to the question , to what country you belong say that you are an Athenian or a Corinthian , but that you are a citizen of the world . For why do you say that you are an Athenian , and why do you not say that you belong to the small nook only into which your poor body was cast at birth ? Is it not plain that you call yourself an Athenian or Corinthian from the place which has a greater authority and comprises not only that small nook itself and all your family , but even the whole country from which the stock of your progenitors is derived down to you He then who has observed with intelligence the administration of the world , and has learned that the greatest and supreme and the most comprehensive community is that which is composed of men and God Why should not such a man call himself a citizen of the world , why not a son of God . To have God for your maker , and father and guardian shall not this release us from sorrows and fears (Discourses 1 .9 ) Also Available...