International conference
COSMOPOLITANISM PAST AND PRESENT
University of Dundee
Wednesday 6 June – Saturday 9 June 2007.

This conference will examine the idea that human beings should be viewed as members of a single community even if they are also divided into separate religious, ethnic and cultural groups, nations and states. We will consider this idea as a moral concept in the world today and as it has been expressed in different cultures in the past.

Where and when did the idea of a universal humanity develop? What are the alternative views? How have relations with outsiders or non-believers been conceptualised in different cultures? We will consider one-world ethics, overcoming borders, the `other' in philosophy and religion.

This conference is inter-cultural and inter-disciplinary. We look, for example, at Buddhism and Islam alongside ancient Greece and modern Europe. We look at the issues as they are treated in the disciplines of history, philosophy, politics, religious studies and international relations

The conference is organised by Antony Black and Brian Baxter (Department of Politics), Tim Chappell (Department of Philosophy) and Martine Vanittersum (Department of History) from the University of Dundee.

List of invited speakers:
The keynote address will be given by former BBC foreign correspondent and independent MP, Martin Bell.