World Citizens

Nussbaum's For Love of Country contains a series of essays by 15 notable scholars and great thinkers such as Gertrude Himmelfarb, Nathan Glazer, Hilary Putnam, Michael Walzer and Elaine Scarry, as well as Nussbaum's own writings (Nussbaum). She opens with an essay tracing ideas from the Stoics, and argues for cosmopolitanism over patriotism, insisting that world citizens regard all human beings as fellow citizens and neighbors, and so it makes more sense, in this era of globalization, to be a citizen of the world than a citizen of a particular state. She believes it is better to prepare children to be cosmopolitan citizens of the world rather than teaching them to be patriots of the nation in which they are born. In an earlier work, Poetic Justice, Nussbaum made powerful arguments against patriotism as well as some of its more sinister aspects, such as ethnocentrism, in favor instead of a universalist allegiance to all human beings of the world. This essay created an enormous controversy in academia, and with her new work, she has brought together her own thoughts and those of 15 noted scholars on the subject.

Nussbaum's view of humanity it that we connect to and value other people through a series of concentric circles, beginning with ourselves and radiating out to include the nuclear family, friends, and extended family, communities, and ever larger groups (Nussbaum). Patriotism is a special bond and obligation to those in our own country, and while it may have some

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Category: Government - W