On Views Of The Study Of Western Contemporary Cosmopolitanism

From different fields of view, this dissertation reviews the academic research of cosmopolitanism in the west. On this basis, around the topic "the renaissance of cosmopolitanism is changing people's view toward justice, democracy, nation and related questions, and is promoting the development and transition of the traditional theories such as philosophy, politics, sociology and normative theory of international relations and international law", the relationship between cosmopolitanism and global distributive justice, democracy and nation is discussed respectively. This dissertation mainly concludes an introduction and seven chapters. It is divided into three parts.The first part concludes Introduction, Chapter One and Chapter Two. In the Introduction, a brief explanation of the thesis and the significance of this research project are summarized firstly. Furthermore, I point out that the renaissance of cosmopolitism has brought about profound impact in the field of theory as well as social practice. It is worth while to discussing the thesis. Besides, I review the research situation of cosmopolitanism study at home and abroad and point out that despite the small scale of cosmopolitanism research in China, research in this field has and will be expanded with the participation of more and more scholars and the translation of more related documents.In Chapter One, the realistic circumstance, social background, historical foundations and present situation of modem renaissance of cosmopolitanism are summarized. It is clearly pointed out that the impact and challenges brought about by globalization and the resultant global poverty and global inequality are the two realistic conditions for the renaissance of cosmopolitanism. The historical foundation for this renaissance is the notion of cosmopolitan citizens in the history of philosophy.Chapter Two is about the conceptual examination of cosmopolitanism. At first, the connotation and essence of cosmopolitanism is examined from various perspectives. Although there has not been any consensus about "what is cosmopolitanism" in western theoretical field, the three key factors of cosmopolitanism summarized by Thomas Pogge are well acknowledged by most of the scholars and thus become the basic reference for the later scholars to investigate in related questions. Besides, I analyze several types of cosmopolitanism which combine cosmopolitanism with other different standpoints and views such as ethical cosmopolitanism, political cosmopolitanism, cultural cosmopolitanism and economic cosmopolitanism. At last, the theoretical basis of cosmopolitanism including liberalism, individualism and universalism are analyzed and evaluated. It is pointed that we should employ Marxist stand to view cosmopolitanism and its theoretical basis objectively and dialectically. We should realize its theoretical value in academic research, but at the same time we should not ignore completely its ideological bias in social practice.The second part is made up of four chapters which are the main body and also the core of this dissertation. Around the main clue, i.e. the basic propositions of cosmopolitanism, this part talks about the application and reflection of cosmopolitanism in the fields such as political philosophy, politics, sociology, international relations and international law. As exhaustive examination of all the views is impossible, only several prominent issues which are empathetically investigated by theorists in various fields are analyzed and studied. The four major issues are: the conception of cosmopolitan justice, the conception of cosmopolitan democracy, the conception of cosmopolitan sociology and the conception of cosmopolitan society. Critical investigation of these four issues is the value of this research, the writing significance of this dissertation and also its creative point. According to the author's investigation in the limited achievement in the study of cosmopolitanism at home, no scholar has specifically adopted this multi-view analytical method to study systematically modern cosmopolitanism theory in the west. This dissertation creatively investigates the complex cosmopolitanism theory from different views, analyzes the profound impact of its application toward theoretical research and social practice and therefore succeeds in understanding and grasping cosmopolitanism comprehensively as a whole.In Chapter Three, i.e. The conception of cosmopolitan justice and its critics, I mainly investigate how cosmopolitanism is adopted as a standpoint and view to analyze global justice and related questions in the field of political philosophy. Based on the interpretation of a large amount of documents about the conception of cosmopolitan justice, I review its putting forward, basic content, its standpoint toward global distributive justice, doubts and criticism received and its responses. At last, a brief comment of the conception of cosmopolitan justice is presented.In Chapter Four, i.e. The conception of cosmopolitan democracy and its critics, I mainly analyze the application and research of cosmopolitanism in the view of politics and investigate how cosmopolitanism, as a norm or principle, is applied in analyzing the construction of new world order. I begin with a general introduction of the proposal background, process of proposal, core propositions of the conception of cosmopolitan democracy which was put forward by David Held and further promoted by Daniele Archibugi. Then I summarize the doubts and criticism that cosmopolitan democracy received in modern times. At last, a brief comment of the development tendency of this conception is presented.In Chapter Five, i.e. The conception of cosmopolitan sociology and its critics, I mainly investigate, in the sociology field, why cosmopolitanism is considered as an analytical perspective and methodology and is applied in the research of social critical theory and the development of social courses. In this field, it is Uhrich Beck who first proposed that sociology theories should divert from the perspective of nationalism to cosmopolitanism. He advocated that methodological nationalism should be replaced by methodological cosmopolitanism and further proposed the theoretical conception of constructing cosmopolitan sociology. Similarly, these new views of Beck received doubts and criticism and Beck gave his responses in time.In Chapter Six, i.e. The conception of cosmopolitan society and its critics, I empathetically analyze Habermas' view on international politics and his conception of cosmopolitan society. Habermas' proposition that national state will eventually give way to "cosmopolitan society" propels the historic significance of "cosmopolitan society" toward the top. I agree with this kind of view that based on his research in theories of international politics, Habermas investigated in an ideal social formation with his theory of the extinction of national state and his views on cosmopolitan society. However, even if we don't take its practicality into consideration, his view couldn't be justified with theoretical analysis. With the above analysis and research, I try to illustrate that although cosmopolitanism poses a challenge to national sovereignty, this challenge is still limited. In some aspects, the sovereign state and its boundary are shrinking, while in some other they are being strengthened. Besides, I also analyze the debate about the subject of international society between the two traditions in the normative theory of international relations, i.e. cosmopolitanism and communitarianism.The third part concludes Chapter Seven, i.e. An brief comment on western contemporary cosmopolitanism. In this part a forward perspective is adopted to discuss, in the process of globalization and with the complex era characteristics, what are the significance and limitations of cosmopolitanism, whether cosmopolitanism can be realized, to what extent it can be realized and what is the foundation of its realization. The highlight in this part is my comment from the perspective of Marxism on the future tendency of cosmopolitanism and several dilemmas it faced. Just as most people recognize, cosmopolitanism can only be considered as a kind of "Utopia". We just talk about the practicality of cosmopolitanism metaphysically and philosophically and never view it from the perspective of realistic and political practice because there are no objective conditions to promote cosmopolitanism to go to practice. Therefore, I believe that, in the present time, "going toward practice" is still a value-pursuit of cosmopolitanism. At last, it is pointed that, the realization of cosmopolitanism is still a long way off. In the present time, it must play a more active role in promoting the reconstruction of world order and the formation of global governance and in this process constantly overcome its limitations.