ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that cosmopolitanism in Jacques Derrida is the signature, even the decision of the other as his cosmopolitics is predicated upon extending unconditional hospitality to the other, or upon the arrival of the other. Cosmopolitanism in Derrida's works sounds like an afterthought in comparison to other more recurring themes of his texts, like 'writing', 'différance', 'supplement', 'metaphysics', or 'violence'. Cosmopolitanism after Derrida is an immediate response to crime, violence and persecution; and the city of refuge for him is the place of reflection in which 'a new order of law, and a democracy to come' is put to the experiment. His notion of the city of refuge represents the 'other heading' of that sovereignty, which, in contrast to the indivisible nature of traditional sovereignty, is shared and divided, and in which it is always the other who decides without exonerating me from being responsible for its decision.