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The Cosmopolitan Ideal: Content and Actors
Triglav Meeting - 25-26 march 2008
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Two years ago, in March 2006,
a similar meeting took place at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on
the subject of The Global Civil Society. The
report on this meeting states that "were considered part of the global civil
society, those organizations, movements and individuals that were working for a
more just, more respectful of human dignity and more peaceful world order." The
concrete manifestations of this work are very visible. A great number of causes
- from the protection of the environment to the equality of women with men and
the abolition of the death penalty- are advanced through the efforts of these
organizations dedicated to the betterment of the human condition. But the ideas
on the contours of a desirable world community, or about paths towards a better
world order are much less visible. The intellectual vision and political project
that ought to sustain this creative enterprise of those dissatisfied with global
conditions and the spirit of the time are not sufficiently articulated. What is
called here the cosmopolitan ideal remains to be designed.
This task is all the more
necessary, and cooperation to this end all the more imperative, that the excessive
materialism of this age is resolutely hostile to the formulation of ideas and
ideals that would provide yardsticks to assess the social value of present
trends. There is, in the dominant political culture, an anti-intellectual
stream that legitimize simplistic formulations of problems and remedial policies.
And this form of "realism" has invaded organizations such as the United
Nations. The Triglav Circle was created to pursue the normative work undertaken
by the world conferences conveyed by the United Nations in the 1980s and 1990s,
notably the Rio Summit on Environment and Development and the Copenhagen Summit
on Social Development. At present, however, little is done within the world
organization to keep alive this endeavor. Member states and the secretariat
devote their energies to the Millennium Development Goals – a list of
targets hardly delineating a coherent vision of the future – to security
issues and to humanitarian matters.
A reflection on a
cosmopolitan ideal might be ordered around the following points:
Why is there a
need for such an ideal? And, what is the state of the art in such a matter? On which reading
of history should a cosmopolitan ideal be based? In particular, what can be
said of the idea of progress and of its relevance for the future of humankind? In the context of
humanity's responsibility towards the world, how to pursue the liberating
message of the Enlightenment while breaking the imperialism of instrumental
rationality and accepting different sources of knowledge? In a global and
harmonious society, what would be the sources and expressions of personal and
social identity, and, from this perspective, what would be the roles of secularism
and religion?
1st Theme The need for a cosmopolitan ideal and the
current efforts to imagine such ideal
This first theme ought not to
take too much of the time available for the meeting and could be introduced by
two speakers. A brief discussion would follow.
First introduction: The need for a cosmopolitan ideal. How those
terms are understood. The role of the global civil society in articulating such
ideal
Second introduction: Presentation
of a project on how the world will look in 2030. Presentation of current
renderings of the cosmopolitan ideal
2d Theme Cosmopolitan ideal, reading of history, and
the idea of progress
In lieu of an introduction,
it might be useful to have a tour de table, each participant being requested to
express in a few minutes his or her views on the theme.
In the course of the
discussion, the following are among the questions that might be addressed:
In which intellectual/academic circles is the concept
of progress alive?
What about the views on progress (and the use of the
word) in contemporary political doctrines, parties and debates?
Is there a "popular" idea of progress? In this
country? In other parts of the world?
What are, and could be the relations between
"progress", "change", and "development"?
What can be said of the old observation that there is
always a gap between the level of scientific and technological "progress"
achieved by a society and the level of cultural and moral "progress" of the
same society?
What is the meaning of expressions such as "moral
progress", "ethical progress", or "spiritual progress"?
Is there room in the dominant culture for the notion
of individual or personal progress? What are the relations between individual
progress and social or collective progress?
What is the reading of history on which the idea and
project of a cosmopolitan ideal is founded?
Could
such foundation be found outside the idea of a possible and desirable progress
of humankind?
3d Theme: Cosmopolitan ideal, realism, and responsibility
towards the world
The discussion on this theme
could benefit from an introduction, for example on the relations between
scientific rationality and other modes of apprehending the world in the
conception and implementation of the actions required to protect the environment.
In the course of the
discussion, the following are among the questions that might be addressed:
Responsibility towards the environment and the world
is, in historic terms, a new and imperative dimension of a cosmopolitan ideal.
How does this change the nature and fundamental orientations of such an ideal?
In
relation with the protection of the environment, the need for finding or
rediscovering a "sense of the sacred" is sometimes invoked. How should this be
understood and put into practice?
In a cosmopolitan ideal, what is the economic theory
(ies?) that is (are) compatible with a respectful attitude towards nature and
its bounties?
How could
the distinction between economics and chrematistics been revived?
The concept of "human nature" is generally invoked to
explain and justify individual and collective behaviors at odd with the notion
of a peaceful and harmonious national or a fortiori world community
(competitiveness, aggressiveness, desire for riches and power, are among the
"qualities" that men in particular are supposed to have inherited from
"nature") And these "qualities" are seen as indispensable for the "growth" of
economy and society. How is this question, or problem, approached in the
building of a cosmopolitan ideal?
Does this ideal imply a scale of values that is the
reverse of the currently dominant hierarchy between "hard" and "soft" values?
What are the links between the promotion of currently
"soft" values and the use of different sources of knowledge?
4th Theme: Cosmopolitan ideal, sources of identity and religion
An introduction to this theme
might be in the form of a summary of the issues debated and questions raised on
the occasion of a recent meeting of the Triglav Circle on Secularism, Ethics and Politics.
In the course of the
discussion, the following are among the questions that might be addressed
How is the concept of identity – personal and
social – understood in the culture(s) of a world that is de-facto rapidly
glibalizaing? What would be in this regard the construct of a cosmopolitan
ideal?
For successive generations of intellectuals, at least
in Europe, (since the Enlightenment? Since Spinoza? Even since the Renaissance?
Or since Socrates?) the dominant view – proclaimed or discreetly hold
– has been that religions, their credos, dogmas and rituals, were
destined to weaken as individuals gained in knowledge and personal freedom. Is
this changing? If so, in what
ways, and why?
Is an atheistic cosmopolitan ideal possible? What are
or would be its philosophical foundations? Could its spiritual foundations and
dimensions have other sources than religious? What kind of secularism should
the world have?
What is the current conception of Deism?
Would individuals in a cosmopolitan and harmonious
world society need other forms of social identity than their world citizenship?
PROGRAMME
OF WORK
Tuesday 25 March
9.30: Opening of the meeting. Welcoming introductions
9.45: Theme 1: Cosmopolitan Ideal: need and current
efforts
- Introductions
- Debate
10.45: Break
11.00: Theme 2: Cosmopolitan ideal, history, idea of
progress
- Tour de table
- Debate
13.00: Lunch
14.15: Continuation of debate on theme 2
15.30: Break
15.45: Theme 3: Cosmopolitan ideal, realism, responsibility
towards the world
- Introduction
- Debate
18.00: End of session
Wednesday 26 March
9.30: Theme 4: Cosmopolitan ideal, sources of identity,
religion
- Introduction
- Debate
11.30: Break
11.45: Overall debate; Concluding tour de table
13.15: End of the meeting
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