The Cosmopolitan Temptation By Mark T. Mitchell Analysis

Before understanding the idea of cosmopolitanism, one most know the origin of the word. To be able to know the origin, one would firstly have to understand the root words when attached they would make up the word cosmopolitanism, the word cosmopolitanism comes from the Greek word kosmos which means “citizen of the world” The world, the other root word attached to cosmopolitanism is Polites which means “Pertaining to administration”. (Dictionary.com). Cosmopolitanism alone has some serious history, being able to be traced all the way back to the late 16th century to eventually becoming apart of the common mans vocabulary in the 17th century later to practically to vanish off the face of the earth around the 18th century (Dictionary.com).
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Though they all aver the same idea of centralizing they are still different in their own ways. There is Ethical cosmopolitism which author Mark T. Mitchell describes in his essay “The Cosmopolitan Temptation” as that all human beings have moral duties to each other (Mitchell, 85). Mitchell also talks about Political Cosmopolitism, which he describes in his essay as the view of humans moving towards a common centralized political goal (Mitchell, 85). Finally Mitchell talks about cultural cosmopolitanism, which he talks about it being a unified world (Mitchell, 85). Though he talks about all three of the ideas of what cosmopolitism is, Mitchell goes on to makes a statement about which ideologies are accepted and which were not. Of the three ideals Mitchell talk about he sates that the only idea of cosmopolitism that is fully embraced is ethical cosmopolitism. This can be affirmed by the thought that there are common morals that are understood by many different cultures. For example, it is morally wrong to put your hand on a woman in a violent manner. Where the idea of political cosmopolitism as well as cultural cosmopolitism is only embrace by cultures like those of communist background like that of China, North Korea, and also the former Soviet Union. Mitchell has a very good understanding of …show more content…
When the idea of cosmopolitism is completely understood one would be able to see that there are more negatives then positives when it comes to perusing the idea of cosmopolitism. Some of the negatives that associate with the idea of cosmopolitism is that when something is cosmopolotized it can threaten the idea of individualism. Also when something is cosmopolotized there is a threat of a loss of culture Russell Jacoby talk about this treat in connection to the Yiddish language that was much like Latin language and over time were lost (Jacoby 78). The threat of endangerment of cultures from failing to adapt when faced with the idea of cosmopolitism would be the Indians, when they refused to conform they were pushed out and were in danger of loosing a part of their