Cosmopolitanism Martha Nussbaum Summary

Martha Nussbaum, a recognized American philosopher and professor, has voiced the idea that the idea of world citizenship and cosmopolitanism can create the base for a good society. She states in her introduction to cosmopolitan emotions, “our imaginations remain oriented to the local … the world has come to a stop – in a way it never has for Americans.”1 To fully familiarize with the concept of cosmopolitanism, three things must be taken into account; the foundations of which it stands on, the systems that undermine the concept, and how it would be beneficial in education. Our progressive society has come to a stand still; this is caused by ignorance and intolerance. This modern world is based off of the ignorance and the idea of moral compassion

There is nothing wrong with loving the country you identify a citizen of; the problem lays with the extreme nationalists who disregard all other beliefs and opinions that are not their own. Nussbaum uses the example of USA chants at the Olympics as extreme patriotism. These acts seem to, “express a wish for America to defeat, abase, humiliate its enemies…. In other words, anyone who crosses us is evil and should be crushed”5 Fighting for the change to cosmopolitanism, Nussbaum says that, “emphasis on patriotic pride is both morally dangerous and, ultimately, subversive of the worthy goals patriotism sets out to serve.”6 These competing ideologies are at very opposite sides of the spectrum. Nationalism and patriotism believe that you are a citizen of the country and should proclaim that you are proud of that, while cosmopolitanism is trying to refute that. “We say that respect should be accorded to humanity as such, but we really mean that Americans are worthy of special respect.”7 Not all accounts of nationalism are this extreme nor are they necessarily bad, but they do suffocate the different ways of thinking that cosmopolitanism is trying to