CosmopolitanismsAn indispensable collection that re examines what it means to belong in the world. "Where are you from?" The word cosmopolitan was first used as a way of evading exactly this question, when Diogenes the Cynic declared himself a kosmo polites, or citizen of the world. Cosmopolitanism displays two impulseson the one hand, a detachment from ones place of origin, while on the other, an assertion of membership in some larger, more compelling collective.