Societal cosmopolitanism: the drift from universalism towards particularism

To consider cosmopolitanism independently, purely as a value, neglects consideration of the way in which people live, how they create collective judgements and how they build their relations with others. Our study counterpoises this abstract idea of cosmopolitanism with the concept of societal cosmopolitanism, which is, in our view, more appropriate for grasping the empirical reality of relations. In this sense, we reject the idea of a generalized universalism of human reason and the associated cultural hegemony of liberal cosmopolitanism. This expression of cosmopolitanism derives from a practical idea of mankind and conceives the ‘social’ as a condition of existence for cosmopolitanism. This, in our view, occurs either through the ‘social incorporating cosmopolitanism’ (in line with Durkheim’s notion of patriotisme spiritualisé) or through ‘cosmopolitanism transcending the social without annihilating it’ (based on Simmel’s ‘law of individuality’). In both cases, cosmopolitanism as a condition of existence cannot coincide with a situation or thought detached from reality. Rather, it has to continuously weave itself within the weft of everyday life, without having to give up its tension with universality and with what mankind has in common. This, we posit, sums up our core concept of societal cosmopolitanism.