The Cosmopolitan Tradition: A Noble but Flawed Ideal by Martha C. Nussbaum (review)

Martha Nussbaum's latest book is a lucid and accessible study of a concept with clear contemporary relevance. In an age of resurgent nationalism, a study of the idea and ideals of cosmopolitanism is remarkably timely. But this is hardly a mere tract for the times; as its acknowledgments note, parts of the book date back to 2000 (289). And ultimately, for all its timeliness, this is a scholarly rather than a popular study of "the long tradition of cosmopolitan political thought" (1) and the ways this tradition can help inform current debates in political philosophy.

Nussbaum's book is organized into seven chapters. The first lays out the core idea of the cosmopolitan tradition: the Cynic/Stoic insight "that politics ought to treat human beings both as equal and as having a worth beyond price." Nussbaum calls this "one of the deepest and most influential insights of Western thought" (2) yet is keenly aware of the challenges involved in translating this ideal into political practice. A key argument of her book is that an otherwise admirable commitment to a "dignity that life's accidents cannot erode" led several leading cosmopolitans to devalue external goods and claim that material goods are "unnecessary for human flourishing." Thus, the "bifurcation of duties" that Nussbaum finds at the heart of the cosmopolitan tradition, which elevates and absolutizes duties of respect and justice to others, also downplays duties of material aid (5).

The second chapter turns to Cicero, the source of this "puzzling bifurcation" (9). Cicero, it is shown, separated duties of justice from duties of material aid (20–23), as the former are "universal, and impose strict, exceptionless obligations" (30), whereas duties of beneficence are "imperfect" (47)—a view said to be shaped by Cicero's acceptance of the Stoic position that external goods are mere "gifts of chance" and "irrelevant for the truly well-lived life" (34). Chapter 3 turns to the Stoics directly to develop this idea that external goods are things "indifferent" and "not necessary" for flourishing (79, 72). This provides Nussbaum an opportunity to introduce her own "moderate cosmopolitan" alternative, which counters that human beings need material goods in order to cultivate our capacities: we all "require external support—love, health, food, shelter, education" to develop "mature human internal powers of choice, action, and emotional response" (91).

Chapters 4 and 5 shift from antiquity to modernity, focusing respectively on Grotius and Adam Smith. Grotius is credited with "bringing the Stoic tradition into the modern world" (99) by translating the question of duties of beneficence into one of the duties of states to provide international humanitarian aid, and is praised for his insight that "nations and their citizens have moral obligations to people in other nations" (11, see also 119–23). Yet it is Smith who is credited with "the most useful contributions toward undoing the bifurcation" in emphasizing "national commitment to material redistribution" (12). But even as Smith is praised for his "decisive progress on these problems" (143) by recognizing that "deprivation of external goods can damage the development of parts of the personality essential for a life worthy of human dignity" (159–60, see also 165), his system is said to be vitiated by its "deep attachment to some problematic Stoic doctrines" (144, see also 175), including especially a "Stoic machismo" (197) replete with "sadomasochistic elements," for which he is said to have had "a quasi-erotic fascination" (201–2).

The final two chapters turn from the tradition to today, suggesting various ways in which Nussbaum's own "capabilities approach" in fact "fleshes out the insights of the tradition" (236). Chapter 6 examines how the capabilities approach can help us make headway on problems in human rights law and humanitarian intervention and asylum, while chapter 7 argues that the key to overcoming the tradition's bifurcation lies in rethinking both moral psychology and the nation.

Nussbaum is at her best in these final chapters on contemporary...