Rethinking Cosmopolitanism: Political and Metapolitical Identities

  • Bernat Torres International University of Catalonia
  • Josep Monserrat Molas University of Barcelona
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18543/ced-02-2019pp73-92
Keywords: cosmopolitanism, cultural diversity, globalization, European Identity, Seneca

Abstract

The paper defends the notion that cosmopolitanism is an important starting point for addressing political identities, but one that needs to be rethought. The paper starts by exposing some political situations both in Europe and in North America where the debate on national identity is faced with the need for a renewed idea of cosmopolitanism, an idea that must be differentiated from similar notions such as cultural diversity or multiculturalism, but also from the idea of globalization. It shows in this sense that there is an important and often forgotten difference between cosmopolitanism and politics, an essential difference when thinking about the real situation in Europe. The paper explains how contemporary cosmopolitanism has its roots in the Stoic and Kantian ideals, ideals that are no longer serviceable and that need to be renewed to confront the new demands of the complexity of the world. The paper concludes defending a new cosmopolitanism (tending towards the line of Hans Jonas or Yves Charles Zarka) that should be respectful to politics (but without forgetting that cosmopolitanism should be prioritised over politics) and also with different national or supranational identities, since it in fact provides a meta-identity for man as a citizen of the world. 

Received: 02 July 2018
Accepted: 16 July 2018
Published online: 27 February 2019

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Author Biographies

Bernat Torres, International University of Catalonia
Bernat Torres Morales, PhD. Lecturer in the Humanities Department at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya. Member of the research Group Sarx (UIC) and also member of the Research group EIDOS, «Hermenutica and Platonism». Publications: Books: “Eric Voegelin–Leo Strauss. Fe y filosofía. Correspondencia 1934-1964” (Trotta, 20009, with A. Lastra). Articles: “Raó, cos i cosmos. Un estudi sobre la corporalitat en el pensament platònic” (Convivium, 2017); “The Significance of Plato’s Philebus in the Philosophy of Eric Voegelin” (The Political Science Reviewer, 2017); “Platón en la relación intelectual de Eric Voegelin y Leo Strauss” (Anales Del Seminario De Historia De La Filosofia, 2009). Edition: Aristòtil lector del Fileb. Lectures sobre el Fileb platònic (with J. Monserrat, 2012).
Josep Monserrat Molas, University of Barcelona
Josep Monserrat-Molas, PhD. Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy (University of Barcelona). Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Barcelona since 2010. Director of the Group of Research «EIDOS, Hermeneutics and Platonism». President of the Societat Catalana de Filosofia (Institut d’Estudis Catalans). Member of the International Plato Society and corresponent of “Bulletin Hobbes”. Publications: Introducció a la lectura de Leo Strauss. Jerusalem i Atenes —with Jordi Sales, 1991—; El polític de Plató. La gràcia de la mesura, 1999; Strauss y Spinoza, 2000; Estranys, setciències i pentatletes. Cinc estudis de filosofia política clàssica, 2007; Al margen del Político de Platón, 2012. Editor of Hermenèutica i platonisme, 2002, Idees d’Autoritat, 2002, Pensament i Filosofia a Catalunya —three volumes, with P. Casanovas, 2002-2004—, Herencias Straussianas, 2004 (with A. Lastra), Philosophy & Dialog. Studies in Plato’s Dialogues, (I) 2007, (II) 2010, Hermenèutica & modernitat, 2009 (with J. Sales), Formal Structures in Plato’s Dialogues, Sankt Agustin (with F. Lisi and M. Migliori) 2011, Aristòtil lector del Fileb. Lectures sobre el Fileb platònic (with B. Torres, 2012), Leo Strauss, Philosopher: European Vistas (with A. Lastra, SUNY Press, 2016), Thomas Hobbes, De Homine, (Paris, Vrin, 2018). Translations: Leo Strauss, La ciutat i l’home; Stanley Rosen, Filosofia fundadora.
Published
2019-02-27
How to Cite
Torres, Bernat, and Josep Monserrat Molas. 2019. “Rethinking Cosmopolitanism: Political and Metapolitical Identities”. Deusto Journal of European Studies, no. 02 (February), 73-92. https://doi.org/10.18543/ced-02-2019pp73-92.
Issue
No. 02 (2019): SPECIAL ISSUE. European identity: roots and scope
Section
Monographic Articles. Roots of European identity. PART 1: «European identity: in search of a definition»

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