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Cosmopolitanism and Europe: An Original Encounter in the Thirties (1929–1939)

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Cosmopolitanism: Educational, Philosophical and Historical Perspectives

Part of the book series: Contemporary Philosophies and Theories in Education ((COPT,volume 9))

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Abstract

This chapter contributes to the discussion of the political debate in the 1930s and challenges the proposition that in the political thinking of that period, there was no space for cosmopolitanism and “Europeanism.” The reference to the ideas of Andrea Caffi and Anna Siemsen might be useful to establish an argument that the claim for a new federal Europe became a tool to address a new cosmopolitan attitude in the political thinking. Studying coeval considerations of the mentioned political philosophers can explain how Eurocentrism was originally perceived as a limit and as a weak point in the worldview of that time and led to a new phase of decolonization. This approach to the 1930s debate might be helpful to understand how a profound decay in the ideological struggle and the collapse of the old nineteenth-century model of civilization brought innovations in each ideological field. In fact, these cases illustrate how in the socialist world the idea to think about a new relation among European and non-European civilizations, founded on the basis of social equality, has sprung up. As a result, with this new approach political cosmopolitanism had become the other face of “universal” socialism.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “Europeism” here means the second sense that is normally linked to the expression “idea of Europe.” In fact inside the academic world, there are mainly two meanings linked to his expression: the former defines a consciousness, a “being” (also an existing tendency), a differentiation between what Europe is and what it is not, and a perception to be something of peculiar called Europe, whereas the latter indicates a project, a vision, a “should be,” and something to realize or to desire that is not yet present that will be common to all Europe. Of course in historical praxis, there are a lot of connections between these two ways to think about Europe, but we can say that, even though they are not separated, they can be conceptualized as distinct (so it is possible to distinguish but not to disconnect about that). See Visone (2016). On the idea of Europe as a project, see Voyenne (1964), Duroselle (1965), Pistone (1975, 1993, pp. 700–709), Stirk (1989), Den Boeret al. (1995), Du Reau (2001), Pagden (2002), Telò (2004), Chabot (2005), Anderson (2009), and Colombo (2009). About Europe as a consciousness and a “being,” see Morin (1988), Gadamer (1989), Geremeck (1991), Cacciari (1994), Fontana (1994), De Benoist (1996), Cardini (1997), Tielker (1998, 2003), Mikkeli (1999), Balibar (2001), Consarelli (2003), Todorov (2003), Bauman (2004), De Giovanni (2004), Pera and Ratzinger (2004), Scuccimarra (2004, pp. 61–75), Pellicani (2007), Rossi (2007), Garcia Picazo (2008), Habermas (2008), and Consarelli (2012). See also the idea of conscience europeiste in Brunetau (2014, p. 57).

  2. 2.

    See George-Henri Soutou (2014, p. 9). Different from this context is the American and the English one characterized by the work of authors such as Clarence Streit, Barbara Wootton, Lord Lothian, and Lionel Robbins. On this debate see Bosco (2009) and Castelli (2002).

  3. 3.

    See Visone (2012a, b), pp. 137–151).

  4. 4.

    See Visone (2012a, 2015).

  5. 5.

    About the history of the concept, see Scuccimarra (2006).

  6. 6.

    See Mori (1992, p. 495). In fact the etymology of the Greek word cosmopolitanism implies a tension between universe (kosmos) and city (polis). Any kind of cosmopolitan thought has lived this tension trying to subordinate local aspirations to global values and perspectives. See Bresciani (2014, p. 170).

  7. 7.

    See, as example, the reflections of Paul Valery (1931) and the considerations of Moritz Bonn that invented the word “decolonization” in 1932 to describe such a context. See Reinhardt (2002, p. 288).

  8. 8.

    About this debate see Visone (2014, pp. 113–142).

  9. 9.

    See Traverso (2007, pp. 191–219).

  10. 10.

    See Hobsbawm (2003, p. 102).

  11. 11.

    For example, José Ortega y Gasset considered Europe the only possible civilization potentially capable to take “mando” (rule) over the globe in such a scenario. He recognized the dignity of others civilization without considering them able to give to his contemporary world a common direction. According to him only a new united Europe would have been able to do it. All this view put him out of the kind of cosmopolitanism that we are talking about here. See Ortega y Gasset (2007).

  12. 12.

    See on this the considerations developed by Jundt (2009, pp. 13–16).

  13. 13.

    Different, of course, is – just to give an example – the position of the cosmopolitan and federalist Scelle (1932/1934).

  14. 14.

    As Thomas Mann wrote in 1934, it was impossible to find an agreement with Hitler. Thus it was necessary a new organization of the “universalist forces” that had to be able to impose itself over the world. See Mann (1958, pp. 340–341).

  15. 15.

    See Lacaita (2010, pp. 13–21). About the German exiles’ debate concerning Europe, see Schilmar (2004).

  16. 16.

    About Anna Siemsen’s life, see Siemsen (1951) and Rogler (1995, pp. 7–53).

  17. 17.

    See Saporetti (2004).

  18. 18.

    About Caffi’s life see Bianco (1977) and Bresciani (2009) and all the documents inside the Andrea Caffi page of “Biblioteca Gino Bianco” http://www.bibliotecaginobianco.it/?r=28&s=132&p=25&t=andrea-caffi.

  19. 19.

    See Siemsen (1932, pp. 50–55).

  20. 20.

    Such as José Ortega y Gasset (2007).

  21. 21.

    See Bresciani (2014, p. 175).

  22. 22.

    During the 1920s Andrea Caffi was engaged in studying and criticizing the ideas of Oswald Spengler and Hugo von Hofmannstahal about the crisis of European civilization and culture. See Visone (2012a, p. 154). Also during the 1930s, he continued to study the right-wing culture and the fascist ideology as it appears clear in Caffi (1932, pp. 55–72).

  23. 23.

    See Visone (2014).

  24. 24.

    See Bresciani (2014, p. 176).

  25. 25.

    In 1930 he published also, for Paneuropa Verlag, a French translation of his former work Die Vereingten Staaten von Europa (1926).

  26. 26.

    Andrea (1970, p. 206).

  27. 27.

    Bresciani (2014, p. 187).

  28. 28.

    Also if Caffi and Siemsen’s ideas were not accessible to Spinelli and Rossi, it is very interesting to find some similar analysis (about the “reactionary” role of nation-state and about the socialist necessity to substitute it with a federal state) inside the “Manifesto of Ventotene” written in 1941/1942.

  29. 29.

    Of course there are differences between the two thoughts analyzed here. For example, the “federalism” of Caffi is closer to the Proudhonian one – with a strong influence of Gurvitch – while the model of Anna Siemsen is constituted by Swiss system. In any case they were both interested, as final aim, in transform the European society in the interest of the “person” more than in simply putting some states together.

  30. 30.

    This superiority was affirmed in spite of all the criticism that authors such as Montesquieu and Voltaire claimed against their society and in spite of their positive consideration of other civilizations (such as China). See the classic study Chabod (2003, pp. 106–121). This conviction was just partially modified by the affirmation of the USA after the independence’s war (1783). See Chabod (2010, pp. 122–127).

  31. 31.

    Also in Caffi the impossibility to renounce to “European tradition” in a hypothetical new world order becomes a conscious “limit.”

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    Tommaso Visone

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    Marianna Papastephanou

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Visone, T. (2016). Cosmopolitanism and Europe: An Original Encounter in the Thirties (1929–1939). In: Papastephanou, M. (eds) Cosmopolitanism: Educational, Philosophical and Historical Perspectives. Contemporary Philosophies and Theories in Education, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30430-4_4

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