Transnational Cosmopolitanism
Kant, Du Bois, and Justice as a Political Craft

Advances normative notion of transnational cosmopolitanism based on Du Bois's writings and practice, and discusses limitations of Kantian cosmopolitanism.

Inés Valdez (Author)

9781108704809, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 September 2020

230 pages
22.9 x 15.1 x 1.4 cm, 0.36 kg

'This book is a fine contribution to the literature, exemplifying … interdisciplinary scope and appeal … and as such a text that could be read with profit by scholars not just in political theory, but IR, history, African American studies, and above all, philosophy.' Charles Mills, Review of Politics

Based on the theoretical reconstruction of neglected post-WWI writings and political action of W. E. B. Du Bois, this volume offers a normative account of transnational cosmopolitanism. Pointing out the limitations of Kant's cosmopolitanism through a novel contextual account of Perpetual Peace, Transnational Cosmopolitanism shows how these limits remain in neo-Kantian scholarship. Inés Valdez's framework overcomes these limitations in a methodologically unique way, taking Du Bois's writings and his coalitional political action both as text that should inform our theorization and normative insights. The cosmopolitanism proposed in this work is an original contribution that questions the contemporary currency of Kant's canonical approach and enlists overlooked resources to radicalize, democratize, and transnationalize cosmopolitanism.

1. The limits of Kant's anti-colonialism and his philosophy of history
2. Vertical and horizontal readings of Kant's principles
3. Du Bois and a radical, transnational, cosmopolitanism
4. Race, identity, and the question of transnational solidarity in cosmopolitanism
5. A transnationally cosmopolitan counterpublic
References
Index.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Political science & theory [JPA], Sociology [JHB], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], Philosophy [HP], National liberation & independence, post-colonialism [HBTR], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ]