Review article
https://doi.org/10.32728/tab.14.2016.12
Cosmopolitan Identity – historical origins and contemporary relevance
Marin Beroš
Abstract
The idea of cosmopolitanism owes its origin to the Cynic Diogenes of
Sinope, who first proclaimed, “I am cosmopolitan!” Although this identification was primarily negative in the sense that he did not declare it with the intention of becoming the first “citizen of the world” but rather to express disagreement with the laws of the ancient poleis, the Stoic school had consequently taken his initial idea and turned it into a comprehensive concept: the unity of humanity based on the shared ability to reason. At the beginning of the 21st century, this ancient idea is deemed a well-known concept. Indeed, cosmopolitanism is today primarily regarded as a specific idea, or behavioural pattern, represented by cosmopolitans or citizens of the world. Cosmopolitans, in turn, are those who consider themselves unfettered by the boundaries of existing political communities and their loyalty is not to any particular political community, rather they owe their loyalty to the more universal community of all human beings. By itself, this definition is accurate, but it is also too narrow, because the cosmopolitan idea involves so much more. From its former definition as mere detachment from the political systems of nation states and as the notion of “openness to the world”, cosmopolitanism is now beginning to be seen as a legal and political framework, as an ethical ideal and vision of justice, as well as a type
of identity choice made by individuals. This essay will try to demonstrate that what all of these different contemporary views on cosmopolitanism share is a vision of social belonging that cuts across the political boundaries imposed upon us, as well as a construction of new cosmopolitan identities that have just begun to erode our current understanding of the political community.
Keywords
cosmopolitanism; cultural cosmopolitanism; cosmopolitan identity; nationalism
Hrčak ID:
177362
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2016.
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