The revival of cosmopolitan idealism is in
fact closely connected with the classical idea
of virtue. There is a republican tradition that
had its origins in the Stoical tradition of
Rome that promoted the idea of cosmopolitan
virtue. This tradition in the modern period
has attempted to distinguish between love of
country (patriotism) and respect for the state
(nationalism). We have lost this tradition,
failing typically to recognize any distinction
between patriotic and nationalist commitments.
Writers such as Giuseppe Mazzini
(1906) argued that love of one’s own country
was perfectly compatible with commitment
to a commonwealth that embraced a love of
humanity. Indeed an education in the love of
patria moved inevitably towards a commitment
to the republica. This language of
virtue and the commonwealth has been lost to
us in a world that has become dominated by
calculating rationalism and the neo-liberal
faith that our private vices (greed) are public
virtues (wealth).