Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that a new conception of cosmopolitanism is needed for formulating a conception of cosmopolitanism as an "eccentric" ethico-political ideal. The ethico-political responsibility that makes higher demands upon the self than those made by culturalist cosmopolitanism is premised on a caustic and eccentric cosmopolitan idiom. The book states that a redefined cosmopolitanism requires nothing less than an ongoing decentering of the self and an education that enables eccentricity. Cosmopolitanism is eccentric in the sense that it decenters the self, cultivates centrifugal virtues, and questions the inflated concern for the globally enriched self. Against an outlook on cosmopolitanism, the book claims that the real borders to be crossed by true cosmopolitans are internal, regrettably, traversable, raised at an early age, preserved through education, and carried along.