page_title: Cosmopolitanism
section_title: Philosophical roots
hierarchical_section_title: Cosmopolitanism / Philosophical / Philosophical roots
context_page_description: Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all human beings are, or could or should be, members of a single community. Different views of what constitutes this community may include a focus on moral standards, economic practices, political structures, and/or cultural forms. A person who adheres to the idea of cosmopolitanism in any of its forms is called a cosmopolitan or cosmopolite.
  In a cosmopolitan community individuals from different places form relationships of mutual respect. As an example, Kwame Anthony Appiah suggests the possibility of a cosmopolitan community in which individuals from varying locations enter relationships of mutual respect despite their differing beliefs.
  Various places are called "cosmopolitan"; this does not usually mean cosmopolitan; cosmopolitan means people of various ethnic, cultural and/or religious backgrounds live nearby and interact with each other.
context_section_description: Cosmopolitanism can be traced back to Diogenes of Sinope (c. 412 B.C.), the founding father of the Cynic movement in Ancient Greece.  Of Diogenes it is said: "Asked where he came from, he answered: 'I am a citizen of the world (kosmopolitês)'". In Ancient Greece, the broadest basis of social identity at that time was either the individual city-state or the Greeks (Hellenes) as a group. The Stoics, who later took Diogenes' idea and developed it, typically stressed that each human being "dwells [...] in two communities – the local community of our birth, and the community of human argument and aspiration".
  A common way to understand Stoic cosmopolitanism is through Hierocles' circle model of identity that states that we should regard ourselves as concentric circles, the first one around the self, next immediate family, extended family, local group, citizens, countrymen, humanity. Within these circles human beings feel a sense of "affinity" or "endearment" towards others, which the Stoics termed Oikeiôsis. The task of world citizens becomes then to "draw the circles somehow towards the centre, making all human beings more like our fellow city dwellers, and so forth".
caption: Diogenes
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