ABSTRACT

Cosmopolitanism concerns the relation between the most general and the most particular aspects of the human condition. On the one hand there is the human species, representing the universals of human life or ‘cosmos’. On the other hand, there is the human individual, embodying all that is unique in time and space: ‘polis’. To comprehend the human, according to cosmopolitanism is to see these polar realities always in relation. The human species is only and ever embodied in its individual exemplars; the human individual is to be known always by way of capabilities and liabilities that are species-wide. (Between individual and species there may exist a host of classificatory associations – societies, ethnicities, communities, nations, religions, classes – but these are symbolic constructs only, matters of rhetoric and imagination, epiphenomenal upon the concrete realities of individual and species.) What, then, is the cosmopolitan project of anthropology? I present an outline. Of key importance is validating human life as a form of movement towards the future and away from conventional cultural categories and collectivities. Futurity might be defined as an individual’s birthright: the right continually to author an identity. It is the cosmopolitan project to work out an accommodation between universal individual aspirations and local structures of hospitality and politeness.

摘要

世界主义关注人类状况最普遍和最特殊方面之间的关系。一方面是人类，代表人类生命或“宇宙”的普遍性。另一方面，还有人类个体，体现了时间和空间上的一切独特之处：“城邦”'。根据世界主义的观点，理解人类就是要看到这些极端的现实总是相互关联的。人类物种只体现在其个体范例中。人类个体始终是通过物种范围内的能力和责任来认识的。（个人和物种之间可能存在许多分类关联——社会、种族、社区、国家、宗教、阶级——但这些只是象征性的构造，是修辞和想象的问题，是个人和物种具体现实的附带现象。）那么，人类学的世界主义计划是什么？我提出一个大纲。最重要的是验证人类生命作为一种走向未来和远离的运动形式来自传统文化类别和集体。未来可以被定义为个人与生俱来的权利：不断创造身份的权利。这是一个国际化的项目，旨在在普遍的个人愿望与当地的热情好客和礼貌结构之间达成妥协。