Cosmopolitan Liberalism: Expanding the Boundaries of the Individual

209 Pages·2010·2.613 MB·English

by  Mónica Judith Sánchez-Flores (auth.)

COSMOPOLITAN LIBERALISM
Previous Publications
Mónica Judith Sánchez-Flores. 2005. Political Philosophy for the Global Age. New
York: Palgrave Macmillan
COSMOPOLITAN LIBERALISM
EXPANDING THE BOUNDARIES
OF THE INDIVIDUAL
Mónica Judith Sánchez-Flores
COSMOPOLITAN LIBERALISM
Copyright © Mónica Judith Sánchez-Flores, 2010.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-61352-2
All rights reserved.
First published in 2010 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
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this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
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ISBN 978-1-349-37812-8 ISBN 978-0-230-11142-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230111424
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sánchez-Flores, Mónica Judith.
Cosmopolitan liberalism : expanding the boundaries of the individual /
Mónica Judith Sánchez-Flores.
p. cm.

1. Cosmopolitanism. 2. Liberalism. I. Title.
JZ1308.S25 2010
306—dc22 2009048249
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: August 2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Compassion is the finest weapon and the best defense.
If you would establish harmony,
Compassion must surround you like a fortress.
—Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Contemporary Cosmopolitanism 1
1 Compassion and a Tale of Belonging for
the Human Species 19
2 Trust in Strangers and the Critique of
Abstract Liberalism 53
3 Beyond the Realm of Individuality:
Nature and Children 83
4 Human Difference and the Multicultural Dilemma 127
5 Citizens of the World, Unite! 167
Notes 177
Bibliography 185
Index 195
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am indebted to my colleagues in the History Division at the
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in
Mexico City; much of the work in this book was discussed in its
internal seminar in the past three years. I would like to especially
thank Clara García, Erika Pani, Luis Barrón, Rafael Rojas, Mike
Sauter, and Jean Meyer for their support and useful comments to
this project. Chapter two of this book was presented at the 2009
Annual General Meeting of the British Columbia Political Science
Association (BCPSA) in Thompson Rivers University (TRU). I
would like to thank Derek Cook for encouraging me to be discus-
sant of a panel that included cutting-edge presentations that would
eventually prove to be very useful for this project. A paper that
became the biggest part of chapter three in this book was pre-
sented at one of The Species of Origin workshops at Glasgow
University in December 2007. I would like to thank Emilios
Christodoulidis for introducing me to such an exciting multidisci-
plinary effort that brought together intellectuals and artists to
discuss fresh perspectives on Darwinism and evolution. An early
version of chapter four in this book was presented at the Association
for Political Theory Conference 2008; and Frank Lovett’s comments
were very useful in rewriting it. Also, this chapter was completed
with the support of the Faculty Research Program Grant 2006–2007
awarded by the Canadian Studies Program of the Department of
Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the Embassy of Canada
in Mexico. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the loving sup-
port of my husband, Stuart Douglass, who epitomizes the ideas
expressed in this book and whose c onstancy in compassion is the
backbone of the culture of peace that together we build for our
children.
INTRODUCTION
CONTEMPORARY
COSMOPOLITANISM
The moral philosophy of contemporary cosmopolitanism—the
basis on which cosmopolitanism is discussed today—is
distinctly Western. What this means is that it is based philosophi-
cally, historically, and culturally in the Western tradition of liberal
thought. Western liberalism, in spite of being posed and proposed
in abstract and culture-neutral terms, emerged from Judeo-
Christian Europe and to this day is conditioned by these cultural
roots, as well as tainted by the history of colonization and abase-
ment of the constructed non-Western “other.” I am referring to
liberalism here as “Western” because, in spite of it not being pos-
sible that there be any other type of liberalism in the world, I want
to differentiate it from a type of liberalism that aspires to be purged
from the conditionings of Western supremacist history and culture.
My ambition in this book is to lay the grounds for the possibilities
of what I call Cosmopolitan Liberalism, which will embrace the
cultural achievements of Western liberalism but will leave behind
its parochial limitations. Western liberalism, in trying to propose
itself as abstract thought, refuses to see how its own structure is
culturally shaped by the Judeo-Christian ethos and also how such
structure depends on stories of supremacy that are mingled both
with race and wealth as symbols of worth. According to the prin-
ciples of reality that emerged in the Age of Reason, modernity
defines itself in contrast and opposition to parochial and supersti-
tious myths and this self-confidence is complemented with the
2 COSMOPOLITAN LIBERALISM
achievements of natural science and the morality of liberalism (with
universal pretensions). However, if the communitarian critique to
abstract liberalism has taught us anything at all,1 it is that
liberalism—and by association, contemporary cosmopolitanism—is
not without its own cultural roots. Western liberalism is based on
the cultural achievements of modernity, which got its own self-
awareness in Europe and North America during the long historical
stretch that encompasses all the modern revolutions: scientific,
industrial, and political. Because of this history, proud colonial
powers in Europe considered themselves at the highest stage of
human civilization with much terrain to be conquered still for the
unstoppable march of modernity. These peoples and colonial pow-
ers, regarding themselves the authors of such social transforma-
tions, proceeded to compose stories of racial and continental
supremacy with respect to the rest of the world. The term Western
liberalism intends to stress the supremacist side of the tradition
while at the same time acknowledging its cultural roots. As a
cosmopolitan I believe it is important to bear in mind the cultural
and historical sources of the liberal tradition of thought, as well as
its structural prejudices, in order to aid its development toward
fully serving the goal of justice for universal humanity.
In the leading story of supremacy mentioned earlier, Greece is
the “cradle of Western culture” that was rediscovered during the
Renaissance by Europe; however, the culture that today we refer
to as Western is also the product of a host of many other unac-
knowledged cultural sources. What we call Western culture comes
from a diverse set of stories and histories woven together by philo-
sophical efforts in search for the basis of universal reality.2 It is well
known that Western culture could not have reached its current
heights without Arabic, Chinese, Indian, and other influences and
cultural transformations (see Sen 2006). Nevertheless, today the
term Western is used in an equivalent manner to the term modern.
In fact some commentators have referred to modernization as
Westernization, as if the peoples who embrace the secular princi-
ples of modernity are in fact stealing these ideas from the Western
colonial powers that are seen as having authorship over them. In
spite of this, modern culture is shared across the globe today. My
point is that modern culture should no longer be considered