A Review of Inhuman Conditions: On Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights

Authors

Jessica Browne

Abstract

Pheng Cheah's book Inhuman Conditions: On Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights connects globalization and cosmopolitanism to the humanities in an effort to understand the nature of humanity itself. At its core, Cheah's arguments seem to relate to the quote from his book, "Humanity . . . is, after all, an interminable work of collaboration and comparison."[1] He makes his way through various stages of discourse. First, he presents theconcept of new cosmopolitanism as a departure from the cosmopolitanism of Immanuel Kant and Karl Marx. He positions new cosmopolitanism within an intellectual and philosophical paradigm relative to nationalism and cosmopolitanism as "vehicles of freedom." [2] Cheah then moves through an analysis of Jurgen Habermas's writings on cosmopolitan democracy. He discusses the presence of hybrid cosmopolitanism as well. Primarily, though, heseeks to present new cosmopolitanism, its limitations, and its relationship to modern global capitalism, labor, and human conditions, or rather inhuman conditions.

Recommended Citation

Browne, Jessica (2014) "A Review of Inhuman Conditions: On Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights," e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work: Vol. 2: No. 3, Article 3.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/e-Research/vol2/iss3/3