Cosmopolitan Responsibility

The world we live in is unjust. Preventable deprivation and suffering shape the lives of many people, while others enjoy advantages and privileges aplenty. Cosmopolitan responsibility addresses the moral responsibilities of privileged individuals to personally act in the face of global structural injustice. The book utilizes an analysis of the paradigmatic challenges of climate change and world poverty: If existing institutions fail to adequately address the injustice in question, capable individuals are then called upon. Committed to an ideal of relational equality of all human beings, the book discusses the connection between rights and duties, the challenge of special obligations, and the possibility of moral overdemandingness in order to lay the ground for a global political ethics: As global citizens, individuals should cultivate an egalitarian ethos in order to discharge - by thinking and acting in certain ways - their cosmopolitan responsibility. This thought-provoking book will be of interest to any reflective reader concerned about justice, rights, and responsibilities in a globalized world. Jan-Christoph Heilinger is Academic Director of the Munich Center for Ethics and Lecturer in Philosophy at LMU Munich.