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The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 17.3 (2003) 204-215



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Cosmopolitan Loyalty and the Great Global Community:
Royce's Globalization

Jose-Antonio Orosco
Oregon State University


Many political observers today believe that a new world society is emerging through a process of globalization. The end of the Cold War occasioned a new era of global interconnectivity among nations, binding them together through intricate networks of communication, finance, technology, and politics. For the proponents of globalization, the world is rapidly becoming one single society in which various organizations and institutions coordinate the development of a global system exhibiting its own norms, culture, and cosmopolitan expectations among distant peoples. Skeptics of globalization, however, point out that it may be possible to have this world society without building a world community. Global economic, political, and social interdependence may take place, but this does not ensure that a sense of common purpose or identity among the world's people will also develop. Indeed, recent events such as the hostility of Serbian nationalists toward the West over the conflict in Kosovo, the destruction of the World Trade Center by religious fundamentalists, or even the vandalism of fast food restaurants in France by organic farmers demonstrate that the expansion of Western political and consumer culture around the world can generate violent backlash as a protective response to the perceived loss of local traditions and ways of life.

Is it possible, then, to develop a global community of shared purpose, common interests, and mutual respect within the framework of the current world society created by processes of globalization? This essay attempts an answer by drawing on Josiah Royce's idea of the possibility of a global community. Writing in 1916, Royce believed that [End Page 204] international economic integration had reached such a level at the time that calls for cosmopolitan unity among the world's people could be taken seriously. 1 Yet he maintains that two points have to be kept in mind in order to prevent the development of global community from becoming an abstract and utopian ideology. First, he cautions against those cosmopolitans who summon people to eschew their national identities and consider themselves only as "citizens of the world." National and local loyalties, Royce argues, will have to be preserved in any global community and it is a mistake to think of them as fundamentally incompatible with cosmopolitan citizenship. Second, Royce maintains that the global community will not evolve out of any existing or future political institutions, such as the United Nations, or from any kind of trade agreements between nation-states. Instead, he suggests that the solidarity of the global community will have to be grounded on norms and values that are developed through deliberative dialogues among autonomous international agents acting together in what he terms "communities of interpretation." I will explain the meaning of Royce's idea of the community of interpretation and how it might be used as a model for organizing various agents into an international civil society that may indeed serve as the foundation for the global community.

Cosmopolitan Loyalties

The cosmopolitan, according to the recent work of Martha Nussbaum, is a person who refuses to give primary allegiance to any local or national government and focuses her loyalty, instead, on the "moral community made up by the humanity of all human beings." 2 This does not entail that the cosmopolitan cannot choose to identify with some nation or region, or that she must work to abolish nations or any other political community operating below the level of world government. The cosmopolitan, Nussbaum believes, should recognize that she is partially constituted by her local ties to nation and community and should make an effort to learn about their particular histories. But these ties should not determine her moral judgments or political outlook. Instead, the cosmopolitan ought to understand that she is first, and foremost, a human being and only by accident of birth a member of this or that nation or province. This realization will help the cosmopolitan to adopt the "equal worth of...

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