Cosmopolitanisms

Published by New York University Press 2017

Cosmopolitanisms

Edited by: Bruce Robbins and Paulo Lemos Horta
Afterword by: Kwame Anthony Appiah

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479829682.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

An indispensable collection that re-examines what it means to belong in the world.

"Where are you from?" The word cosmopolitan was first used as a way of evading exactly this question, when Diogenes the Cynic declared himself a “kosmo-polites,” or citizen of the world. Cosmopolitanism displays two impulses—on the one hand, a detachment from one’s place of origin, while on the other, an assertion of membership in some larger, more compelling collective.

Cosmopolitanisms works from the premise that there is more than one kind of cosmopolitanism, a plurality that insists cosmopolitanism can no longer stand as a single ideal against which all smaller loyalties and forms of belonging are judged. Rather, cosmopolitanism can be defined as one of many possible modes of life, thought, and sensibility that are produced when commitments and loyalties are multiple and overlapping. Featuring essays by major thinkers, including Homi Bhabha, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Thomas Bender, Leela Gandhi, Ato Quayson, and David Hollinger, among others, this collection asks what these plural cosmopolitanisms have in common, and how the cosmopolitanisms of the underprivileged might serve the ethical values and political causes that matter to their members. In addition to exploring the philosophy of Kant and the space of the city, this volume focuses on global justice, which asks what cosmopolitanism is good for, and on the global south, which has often been assumed to be an object of cosmopolitan scrutiny, not itself a source or origin of cosmopolitanism.

This book gives a new meaning to belonging and its ground-breaking arguments call for deep and necessary discussion and discourse.

Author / Editor information

Robbins Bruce :

Bruce Robbins is Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. He is the editor of Cosmopolites and the author of Perpetual War: Cosmopolitanism from the Viewpoint of Inequality.Horta Paulo Lemos :

Paulo Lemos Horta is Associate Professor of Literature at NYU Abu Dhabi. A writer, translator, and literary historian, his writing has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement. He is the author of Marvellous Thieves: Secret Authors of the Arabian Nights.Appiah Kwame Anthony :

Kwame Anthony Appiah, who has been president of the PEN American Center, is the author of The Ethics of Identity, Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy, The Honor Code, and the prize-winning Cosmopolitanism. Raised in Ghana and educated in England, he has taught philosophy on three continents and is currently Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University. Professor Appiah writes the “Ethicist” column in the New York Times Magazine.

Reviews

This edited volume reignites many of the incessant debates on cosmopolitanism, its origin, development, andraison dêtre, not only from difference disciplinary traditions and & world views but also from different points in time. . . . The vibrancy of the field is shown by the list of influential critics in this volume, who do not take the notion of cosmopolitanism for granted but engage with it from positions that are both critical and creative.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction Bruce Robbins and Paulo Lemos Horta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. Justice
1. The Cosmopolitanism of the Poor Silviano Santiago Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
2. George Orwell, Cosmopolitanism, and Global Justice Bruce Robbins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
3. Cosmopolitanism Goes to Class Walter Benn Michaels Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
4. Utonal Life A Genealogy for Global Ethics Leela Gandhi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
Part II. Solidarity
5. Cosmopolitanism and the Problem of Solidarity David A. Hollinger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
6. Afropolitanism Achille Mbembe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
7. Cosmopolitan Exchanges Scenes of Colonial and Postcolonial Reading Elleke Boehmer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
8. The Cosmopolitan Experience and Its Uses Thomas Bender Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
9. Cosmopolitanism and the Claims of Religious Identity Jean Bethke Elshtain Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
Part III. Power
10. The Cosmopolitan Idea and National Sovereignty Robert J. C. Young Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
11. Spectral Sovereignty, Vernacular Cosmopolitans, and Cosmopolitan Memories Homi K. Bhabha Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
12. Cosmopolitan Prejudice Paulo Lemos Horta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
Part IV. Critique
13. A Stoic Critique of Cosmopolitanism Phillip Mitsis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
14. A Cosmopolitanism of Connections Craig Calhoun Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
15. The Pitfalls and Promises of Afropolitanism Emma Dabiri Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Part V. Spaces
16. City of Youth and Mellow Elusiveness Accra’s Cosmopolitan Constellations Ato Quayson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
17. The Cosmopolitanisms of Citizenship Jeremy Waldron Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	230
18. Afropolitan Style and Unusable Global Spaces Ashleigh Harris Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
19. Other Cosmopolitans Yan Haiping Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	254
Afterword Kwame Anthony Appiah Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
About the Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: July 18, 2017
ISBN: 9781479839681