Cosmopolitan Localism: Augustine on Place and Contingency

Abstract

Augustine is not included among the many ancient thinkers that Martha Nussbaum draws upon for her cosmopolitan project. This is surprising both because Augustine is often read as a cosmopolitan and because Nussbaum engages with and critiques him on other related matters, particularly the purported 'otherworldliness' of this thought. This article remedies this lack, putting Augustine into conversation with Nussbaum's cosmopolitanism. By investigating Augustine's view of contingency generally and the contingency of place specifically, I show that Augustine's thought supports both universal ethical concern of the sort Nussbaum praises and particular attachments to place which Nussbaum has been criticized for lacking. In addition, Augustine's view of contingency avoids the ironism of Richard Rorty's patriotism, which Nussbaum also criticizes. Augustine sees more clearly than both Nussbaum and Rorty how particular and universal commitments need not be competitive. Therefore, Augustine is not quite the cosmopolitan thinker that he is often recognized to be, but neither is he the severely otherworldly thinker that Nussbaum reads him as.