Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines three recent themes in the work of the political philosopher David Miller: his general conception of global justice, his efforts to construct a theory of responsibility to cope with the challenges of global justice, and his national-identity centered critique of cosmopolitan theory. The first part of this paper responds to several of Miller's critical arguments regarding cosmopolitanism, arguing that at important junctures in his critical assessment, he relies on a unnecessarily stunted version of cosmopolitanism, which is directly connected to a misreading of the specific nature of the nation-state. The second section discusses some of the difficulties and shortcomings in Miller's (otherwise highly appealing) "connection theory" of responsibility, and makes the case that Miller's thinking about responsibility and would be well-informed by entertaining some cosmopolitan possibilities foreclosed by his unnecessarily broad dismissal of cosmopolitan positions. A more moderate form of institutional cosmopolitanism (one that doesn't figure prominently in Miller's critiques) can go a long way toward making Miller's connection theory of responsibility more appealing and plausible.