The Cosmopolitan Tradition, Martha C. Nussbaum
The Cosmopolitan Tradition, Martha C. Nussbaum
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The Cosmopolitan Tradition
A Noble but Flawed Ideal

Author: Martha C. Nussbaum

Narrator: Christa Lewis

Unabridged: 10 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/12/2019


Synopsis

The cosmopolitan political tradition in Western thought begins with the Greek Cynic Diogenes, who, when asked where he came from, responded that he was a citizen of the world. Rather than declaring his lineage, city, social class, or gender, he defined himself as a human being, implicitly asserting the equal worth of all human beings.

Nussbaum pursues this "noble but flawed" vision of world citizenship as it finds expression in figures of Greco-Roman antiquity, Hugo Grotius in the seventeenth century, Adam Smith during the eighteenth century, and various contemporary thinkers. She confronts its inherent tensions: the ideal suggests that moral personality is complete, and completely beautiful, without any external aids, while reality insists that basic material needs must be met if people are to realize fully their inherent dignity.

The insight that politics ought to treat human beings both as equal to each other and as having a worth beyond price is responsible for much that is fine in the modern Western political imagination. The Cosmopolitan Tradition extends Nussbaum's work, urging us to focus on the humanity we share rather than all that divides us.

About Martha C. Nussbaum

Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, appointed in the Law School and the Philosophy Department. Among her many awards are the 2018 Berggruen Prize, the 2017 Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the 2016 Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Dan on November 28, 2019

This is such a wonderfully focused and detailed work of academic writing on a very specific subject. The notion of the "cosmopolitan tradition," or the notion of the innate equality of worth found in all human beings irrespective of their place of birth, is a longstanding idea with roots in ancient......more

Goodreads review by Jerry on November 03, 2019

Why can't we all just get along? Discusses broader community longitudinal, starting with Cicero. Buddhism has long brought a different idea, the idea of human equality. p . 3 The accident of being born in one country rather than another pervasively shapes the life chances of every child who is born. p.......more

Goodreads review by Rafael on June 23, 2024

The central idea of this book is very important and ample, She writes about our failures of achieving the cosmopolitan ideal of Ancient Greek philosophy. I feel like this is a book to be read more than one time. I am not convinced of the fairness her criticisms against the stoics, but she makes a fa......more

Goodreads review by Keersmaekers on July 30, 2024

Nussbaum onderzoekt in dit boek de kosmopolitische traditie vanuit enkele vooraanstaande (stoïcijnse) denkers, m.n. Cicero, Grotius en Adam Smith. De centrale vraag in dit boek is welke plichten er volgen vanuit de notie van het kosmopolitisme. Dat kosmopolitisme ("wereldburgerschap") is het gevoel (......more

Goodreads review by David on January 29, 2021

Tomando como punto de partido que la tradición cosmopolita nos invita a mirarnos como iguales en tanto ciudadanos del mundo, Martha Nussbaum argumenta que tenemos buenas razones morales para prestar ayuda material tanto a nivel nacional como internacional. Se aparta para esto del planteamiento estoi......more