ABSTRACT

Literary tradition attributes the invention of cosmopolitanism to Diogenes, the Cynic. Christianity associated cosmopolitanism with religious universality, with the belief in a supreme being. According to Epictetus, man is a citizen of the world because he is capable of understanding divine sovereignty and reflecting on the consequences of this sovereignty. Cosmopolitanism can only manifest itself in a multi-ethnic society in which the various groups are not forced to choose between ghettoisation and assimilation. Although a multi-ethnic society is not a cosmopolitan society, it constitutes a necessary condition for the emergence of such a society. Socialist internationalism has likewise regarded cosmopolitanism as the supreme manifestation of capitalism. Despite all this, cosmopolitanism is still spoken of as a concept; the predictable passing of the nation state has roused mixed hopes and fears. Cosmopolitanism therefore remains, as it always has been, an elitist movement, operating in a concept of community which is simply changing its scale.