The Cost of Divided Loyalties: Family, Country, and the World as Independent Values

Familism, patriotism, and cosmopolitanism form three concentric circles in a person’s life. Each of these respective human communities constitutes an independent good for the good life. Shifting allegiances between these circles entails reallocating loyalty and dedication, and thus both enriches one’s life and incurs a cost to it. In the view that I construct here, a philosophy of the good life articulates its own vision of the ideal allocation of loyalty and dedication among these three or more spheres. While cosmopolitanism has its own value and good, it also comes with a cost; proponents of cosmopolitanism—including Confucian cosmopolitans —often overlook such a cost. I argue for a “harmony” approach to cosmopolitanism that takes into account the cost it incurs on people’s local commitments.