ABSTRACT
Etymologically the term cosmopolitan is derived from the Greek words cosmos and polis. Cosmos refers to thewholeworld, yes, indeed, thewhole universe, although in practice the reference is to the world as the globe. Polis is the label of a bounded political community, normally a small city state. From there comes the term politics. The unification of the unbounded world and the bounded polity means a contradiction and the question in this chapter is how it has been addressed historically.
