Becoming a Cosmopolitan argues that we need a new understanding of the self and revives the idea of the cosmopolitan, the person who identifies the world as home.
Becoming a Cosmopolitan
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From Library Journal
Hill (Southern Illinois Univ., Edwardsville) explores the ethical and philosophical implications of tribalism (ethnic, racial, and national) on society. He argues, "A world that naturalizes whiteness has to maintain racial categories as natural dividers. Such a world is not a morally healthy world for persons of color, nor is it a morally healthy world for whites." Further, "The new millennium has opened against a backdrop of continued racial, ethnic, and nationalistic tensions, or escalating tribalism." Hill calls for a new morality and view of the self--moral cosmopolitanism, which rejects tribalism in favor of an all-encompassing view of the community of humankind. Hill's points are well argued and expertly written, but the sometimes esoteric nature of the book makes it most appropriate for a scholarly audience. This fairly radical approach to multiculturalism is an excellent addition to the collection of any academic library.
-Mark Bay, Univ. of Houston Libs.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-Mark Bay, Univ. of Houston Libs.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
An ontological rebel —rejecting the categories that limit our freedom—embracing a morality of becoming, arguing for the merit of forgetting, Hill offers us a new moral imagination. (Leonard Harris,, Purdue University )
The fire of individual freedom that burns for Nietzsche, John Stuart Mill, Dewey and Sartre now sheds light in Jason Hill's Becoming a Cosmopolitan. Hill develops pragmatic, existentialist and narrative accounts of how we can choose and make ourselves, despite prefabricated racial, ethnic and national identities. (Naomi Zack,, Department of Philosophy, State University of New York at Albany )
impressive study...Becoming a Cosmopolitan is a scholarly treatise on the development of human personality, written from the perspective of a philosopher who has made a thorough analysis of the subject.As an erudite and articulate advocate of the cosmopolitan life, he takes us on an itellectual journey through the realm of philosophy, examining the writitingd of philosophers ancient and modern, on such profound and fundamental issues as the development of self and the process of becoming something better and nobler. (Jamaica Gleaner, July 16, 2000 )
This is a richly insightful book whose essay-like philosophical argument is embedded in the bearest sketch of a potent biography—one that describes the author's emigration from Jamaica to the United States. The argument is provocative. (Ethics )
The fire of individual freedom that burns for Nietzsche, John Stuart Mill, Dewey and Sartre now sheds light in Jason Hill's Becoming a Cosmopolitan. Hill develops pragmatic, existentialist and narrative accounts of how we can choose and make ourselves, despite prefabricated racial, ethnic and national identities. (Naomi Zack,, Department of Philosophy, State University of New York at Albany )
impressive study...Becoming a Cosmopolitan is a scholarly treatise on the development of human personality, written from the perspective of a philosopher who has made a thorough analysis of the subject.As an erudite and articulate advocate of the cosmopolitan life, he takes us on an itellectual journey through the realm of philosophy, examining the writitingd of philosophers ancient and modern, on such profound and fundamental issues as the development of self and the process of becoming something better and nobler. (Jamaica Gleaner, July 16, 2000 )
This is a richly insightful book whose essay-like philosophical argument is embedded in the bearest sketch of a potent biography—one that describes the author's emigration from Jamaica to the United States. The argument is provocative. (Ethics )
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By Damian
Format:Hardcover
This beautifully and poetically written book is perhaps the first of its kind. Hill, I believe has two purposes here. The first is the idea that all fights against racism, ethnocentrism and nationalism are doomed until one begins to question the legitimacy of and then fight against their root foundation: tribalism. It is tribalism that Hill feels is the real danger of the modern world and the root cause of, as he puts it, all the carnage and butchery of human existence.He refers to tribalism as a form of infantilism in which the need for parental protection is sublimated and mapped on to the nation/race or ethnos. He thinks that tribalism is evil because it demarcates a set of what he terms, arbitrary and morally irrelevant attributes of people and then use them as moral criteria in judging their worth and value as human beings. He believes that there is virtue in forgetting where we came from (we, meaning humans in general) not as a way of denying our history, but as a form of benevolence in showing that we are willing to open up ourselves to the process of "becoming" (Hill's coinage); to show that we don't take our starting points in life as absolutely defining us in who we have to be for the rest of our lives. The second purpose his book seems to fulfill is that of providing a psychological way of actually becoming a lover of humanity. He thinks the self has to be re-socilaized all over again and he sort of provides a blue-print for how it can actually be done. His ideas range from the notion of moral masking, to adopting the view of the self as a construct of narratives or stories. The end result he believes is one that will bring about a kind of radical self-invention and real comsmic freedom. This book will require careful reading. The author is a philosopher. But he has tried to write for a broad audience. I can't say for sure whether the world Jason Hill wishes to come into existence is really possible. He gives us litle advice on how on a political level a comsopolitan universe is possible. But on the personal level he has tried to communicate how, as he terms it, a radical soul transformation is possible.
By Damian
Format:Hardcover
This beautifully and poetically written book is perhaps the first of its kind. Hill, I believe has two purposes here. The first is the idea that all fights against racism, ethnocentrism and nationalism are doomed until one begins to question the legitimacy of and then fight against their root foundation: tribalism. It is tribalism that Hill feels is the real danger of the modern world and the root cause of, as he puts it, all the carnage and butchery of human existence.He refers to tribalism as a form of infantilism in which the need for parental protection is sublimated and mapped on to the nation/race or ethnos. He thinks that tribalism is evil because it demarcates a set of what he terms, arbitrary and morally irrelevant attributes of people and then use them as moral criteria in judging their worth and value as human beings. He believes that there is virtue in forgetting where we came from (we, meaning humans in general) not as a way of denying our history, but as a form of benevolence in showing that we are willing to open up ourselves to the process of "becoming" (Hill's coinage); to show that we don't take our starting points in life as absolutely defining us in who we have to be for the rest of our lives. The second purpose his book seems to fulfill is that of providing a psychological way of actually becoming a lover of humanity. He thinks the self has to be re-socilaized all over again and he sort of provides a blue-print for how it can actually be done. His ideas range from the notion of moral masking, to adopting the view of the self as a construct of narratives or stories. The end result he believes is one that will bring about a kind of radical self-invention and real comsmic freedom. This book will require careful reading. The author is a philosopher. But he has tried to write for a broad audience. I can't say for sure whether the world Jason Hill wishes to come into existence is really possible. He gives us litle advice on how on a political level a comsopolitan universe is possible. But on the personal level he has tried to communicate how, as he terms it, a radical soul transformation is possible.
By Damian
Format:Hardcover
This beautifully and poetically written book is perhaps the first of its kind. Hill, I believe has two purposes here. The first is the idea that all fights against racism, ethnocentrism and nationalism are doomed until one begins to question the legitimacy of and then fight against their root foundation: tribalism. It is tribalism that Hill feels is the real danger of the modern world and the root cause of, as he puts it, all the carnage and butchery of human existence.He refers to tribalism as a form of infantilism in which the need for parental protection is sublimated and mapped on to the nation/race or ethnos. He thinks that tribalism is evil because it demarcates a set of what he terms, arbitrary and morally irrelevant attributes of people and then use them as moral criteria in judging their worth and value as human beings. He believes that there is virtue in forgetting where we came from (we, meaning humans in general) not as a way of denying our history, but as a form of benevolence in showing that we are willing to open up ourselves to the process of "becoming" (Hill's coinage); to show that we don't take our starting points in life as absolutely defining us in who we have to be for the rest of our lives. The second purpose his book seems to fulfill is that of providing a psychological way of actually becoming a lover of humanity. He thinks the self has to be re-socilaized all over again and he sort of provides a blue-print for how it can actually be done. His ideas range from the notion of moral masking, to adopting the view of the self as a construct of narratives or stories. The end result he believes is one that will bring about a kind of radical self-invention and real comsmic freedom. This book will require careful reading. The author is a philosopher. But he has tried to write for a broad audience. I can't say for sure whether the world Jason Hill wishes to come into existence is really possible. He gives us litle advice on how on a political level a comsopolitan universe is possible. But on the personal level he has tried to communicate how, as he terms it, a radical soul transformation is possible.
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