Abstract
Pragmatic pluralism denotes a particular approach to problems of international human rights and protections that departs from conventional cosmopolitan approaches. Pragmatic pluralism argues for situated and localized forms of cooperation between state and non-state actors, particularly religious groups and organizations, that may not share the secular, juridical understandings of rights, persons, and obligations common to contemporary cosmopolitan theory. A resource for the development of such a model of pragmatic pluralism can be found in the work of Hannah Arendt. Arendt's early dissertation "Love and Saint Augustine" affords a model of religious community and obligation that can be read productively alongside her later political writings. The possibilities inherent in a cooperative reading of these two parts of her work can be illustrated in relation to an issue of particular concern to cosmopolitan theorists: the international refugee crisis.
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Notes
In addition to liberal cosmopolitanism, cosmopolitan theory incorporates social democratic approaches, emphasizing popular participation at all levels (see Held 1995); moral and multiculturalist approaches, emphasizing cross-cultural relations (see Appiah 2007); and Marxist cosmopolitanism (see Cheah 2006).
In a symposium on ‘Religion and the Intellectuals’ published in Partisan Review in 1950, Arendt stated that as a philosopher she had ‘never explicitly rejected traditional religious beliefs or, for that matter, accepted them’ (Arendt 1950).
This point is emphasized by Jeffrey Isaac when he writes that in addition to existing form of mass representative democracy, Arendt envisaged ‘alternative forms of activity, debate and participation and alternative forms of membership and citizenship more vital and empowering than the metaphorical equality of membership in the nation state’ (Isaac 1994, p.160).
An extensive literature exists on the failures of nation-states to meet their obligations under international refugee law, and on the increasing tendency of nation states to avoid these obligations by citing national security and other concerns (see Gibney 2004).
On one historic failure by the UNHCR to meet its mandate in Southern Africa and the role played by churches and kinship ties in meeting refugee needs, see Polzer 2004.
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Tobias, S. Pragmatic Pluralism: Arendt, Cosmopolitanism, and Religion. SOPHIA 50, 73–89 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-010-0190-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-010-0190-8