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Law Class, Fall 1999

Lecture Notes on Exercise 12

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Latest update: October 23, 1999
E-Mail Curran or Takata.

Exercise 12: Local vs. Cosmopolitan

  1. We have spoken of the postmodern position which sees the Enlightenment as carrying with it the undoing of the civilized knowledge of which the Enlightenment dreamed. We spoke of the need to preserve the local, the unique, the different against the universal. Can you see a correspondence here between the local and the cosmopolitan?

  2. Which has the more limited overview? The local or the cosmopolitan?

  3. Which is more likely to believe knowledge absolute when supported by authority? The local or the cosmopolitan? Why?

  4. Which is more likely to question critically? The local or the cosmopolitan?