Literary notes about Cosmopolitanism (AI summary)
Literary writers have employed “cosmopolitanism” to evoke a range of ideas—from an idealized universal human spirit to a critique of global homogenization. For instance, Tagore dismisses both the vague neutrality of cosmopolitanism and the penchant for nation-worship as historical endpoints [1], while Goethe’s early notes, as noted by Wilde, hint at a future where cosmopolitanism could serve as a foundational principle [2]. In sociological texts, such as those by Burgess and Park, cosmopolitanism is presented as a definitive stance or outcome [3], yet Dewey illustrates a tension wherein the state supplants humanity, revealing cosmopolitanism’s fragility in the face of burgeoning nationalism [4][5][6]. This ambivalence continues in literature, evidenced in Forster’s work where cosmopolitanism is both a precursor to and an elusive goal for a future world [7][8], and in Bernard Shaw’s playful assertion of personal cosmopolitan identity [9]. Even Nietzsche reflects on cosmopolitanism’s pervasive influence on culture, extending it to everyday elements like diet and literature [10].
- Neither the colourless vagueness of cosmopolitanism, nor the fierce self-idolatry of nation-worship, is the goal of human history.
— from Nationalism by Rabindranath Tagore - This note, sounded in the modern world by Goethe first, will become, I think, the starting point for the cosmopolitanism of the future.
— from Intentions by Oscar Wilde - It makes entirely for cosmopolitanism."
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - The "state" was substituted for humanity; cosmopolitanism gave way to nationalism.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - The seeming antisocial philosophy was a somewhat transparent mask for an impetus toward a wider and freer society—toward cosmopolitanism.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - We have in this view an express statement of the points characteristic of the eighteenth century individualistic cosmopolitanism.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - He prepares the way for cosmopolitanism, and though his ambitions may be fulfilled, the earth that he inherits will be grey.
— from Howards End by E. M. Forster - Under cosmopolitanism, if it comes, we shall receive no help from the earth.
— from Howards End by E. M. Forster - Hence, perhaps, my cosmopolitanism.
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw - The cosmopolitanism of articles of diet, of literature, newspapers, forms, tastes, and even landscapes.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Nietzsche
