Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
Is cosmopolitanism something to explain or is it the lack of cosmopolitanism that needs explaining? Is cosmopolitanism natural or something we need to try to achieve? Is cosmopolitanism an end result or a starting point? The answer depends on the anthropological assumptions one makes. If human beings are assumed to be isolated individuals, then cosmopolitanism is something to explain, something to be taught, a possible end result. But if human beings are assumed to be intrinsically and naturally social, then cosmopolitanism may be a starting point and what needs to be explained is its absence.
I suggest that for Adam Smith humans are intrinsically social and thus his starting point is cosmopolitanism. Given human natural sociability, part of Smith’s task is to explain the absence of cosmopolitanism, which he attributes to either dire living conditions or the ability of some special interest groups to affect public opinion to their benefits.
Repository Citation
Paganelli, M. P. (forthcoming). Adam Smith and Sympathetic Cosmopolitanism. History of European Ideas.