On cosmopolitan humility and the arrogance of states. Issue 2 (23rd February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cabrera, Luis
• Is Part Of: Critical review of international social and political philosophy. Volume 23:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 163
• Page End: 187
• Publication Date: 2020-02-23
• Subjects: Cosmopolitanism -- global citizenship -- global democracy -- political humility -- universalism; Political science -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Policy sciences -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; 320.01
• DOI: 10.1080/13698230.2018.1497249
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-8230

Abstract

ABSTRACT: One of the potentially most significant objections to a cosmopolitan moral approach charges an essential arrogance: cosmopolitanism disdains particularist moral insights even while – in what is said to be its most coherent form – it seeks to bind all persons within global political institutions. It is argued here that adopting a form of institutional cosmopolitanism actually helps to meet this sort of objection. An appropriately configured such approach will have a conception of equal global citizenship at its core. It will seek to place individuals in relations of political humility, understood not as plain deference to competing moral claims, but as concrete recognition of the equal moral status of others. It will seek to progressively empower as actual citizen equals those whose interests are often 'arrogantly' neglected in the current system, and to multiply mechanisms of input and challenge for them over time.