The human rights between morals and politics: on Jürgen Habermas's cosmopolitanism

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show some tensions of Habermasian project about cosmopolitanism. First, it shall show that the cosmopolitan right is not based on a moral conception but in normative grammar of right itself, which only found a developed institutional reality in the framework of the national state. Secondly, it seeks to show that the need for a European identity, required by Habermas, clashes with other concepts developed by the philosopher to overcoming the national identity. Finally, it shall demonstrate that the cosmopolitan project by Habermas is thought as a sort of phasing in, so that it sticks to the EU program and sets aside other possibilities for cosmopolitanism.

Keywords

• cosmopolitanism
• human rights
• popular sovereignty
• politics
• morals