Le statut de l’étranger dans l’idée du cosmopolitisme : une lecture de l’intégration républicaine de Jürgen Habermas

Abstract

Our research work focuses on the theme of “the status of the foreigner in the idea of cosmopolitanism, a reading of Jürgen Habermas‟ Republican Integration”, and has diachrony, analysis and dialectics as scientific approaches. The main question underlying this research enterprise is: how to restore the status of world citizen to foreigners in view of the rapid evolution of globalization? It must be said that this question will be subject to a methodological approach with the aim of arriving at a proposed solution. This is why Habermas, with the intention of revalorizing an ancient doctrine whose main initiator was Diogenes of Sinope, in this case cosmocitizenship, will rely more on the cosmopolitical heritage of Kant while refuting the monological morality of the latter to establish a dialogic morality which, for him, should silence the protean disparities which always assert themselves in an anarchic manner in society. Habermas, or the philosopher of communication as Alexandre Dupeyrix calls him, therefore places at the center of his normative philosophy and his paradigm of inclusion, a theory of discussion contributing to the construction of universal citizenship. Through this approach, the foreigner becomes less foreign and discursive reason becomes the de facto basis of a new so-called open society in the Popperian sense. To this end, our reflection starts from the first part which shows that the debate on the problem of foreigners is old, with particular emphasis on ancient Greece, the Middle-Ages and the modern era. In the second part, we present the argumentative approach of Habermasian cosmopolitanism which perfectly and commutatively mobilizes the internal sovereignty of the State (civil law), the external sovereignty (international law) and cosmopolitan law with human rights as its foundation. Far from being unanimous, although retaining its relevance, this Habermasian cosmopolitanism has come up against criticism. In the third part, we therefore propose to restore normative content to human rights which a priori benefit the great powers while maintaining hope that the realization of a better world through the realization of a new social pact of a common future, is possible if the dignity of man is truly enhanced. Thus, we would naturally recognize the humanity in the stranger and the irrefragable universality of this nature.