Seyla Benhabib, "Cosmopolitanism Reconsidered"

Seyla Benhabib, Yale University & Columbia Law School

Center for Global Ethics and Politics on February 7, 2023

Cosmopolitanism Reconsidered

The intense interest in cosmopolitanism in the social and political sciences, cultural and legal studies dates back to the last two decades of the 20th century. By the beginning of the new century, cosmopolitanism had fallen on hard times. Not only political developments but philosophical critiques as well have cast doubt upon cosmopolitanism. Martha Nussbaum’s recent book, The Cosmopolitan Tradition: A Noble but Flawed Ideal, heralds a retreat back from cosmopolitan universalism to liberal nationalism. Post-colonial critiques also reject cosmopolitanism for being complicit in European imperialism. In Sylvia Wynter’s words, how can we unsettle the coloniality of being and power, truth and freedom? I will argue that it is possible to defend a ‘cosmopolitanism from below’ that is sensitive to post-colonial critiques without falling back to liberal nationalism.

The Center for Global Ethics and Politics is part of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at The Graduate Center, CUNY.

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