... cosmopolitan emotions are most likely to develop when actors believe that they are causally responsible for harming others and their physical environment
-- Linklater, Andrew (2006) ‘Cosmopolitanism’, in A. Dobson and R. Eckersley (eds), Political Theory and the Ecological Challenge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p.3
Cosmopolitanism is the philosophical position that all human beings belong to a single community and our obligations are essentially not bound by culture or nation.Typical concerns of cosmopolitans include world poverty, world government and international justice. Opposed to cosmopolitanism are positions like communitarianism (moral obligations are determined by and limited to one's culture) and post-modernism (nothing matters).
Cosmopolitans like Thomas Pogge (see my friend Eddie's post here) make the point that much of the Western world is actively responsible for much Third World poverty and suffering.
Hence the question - has cosmopolitanism replaced the fabled "Catholic guilt"?
