Diogenes and Cosmopolitanism

The Dream of a World Community has Ancient Origins

Diogenes of Sinope was homeless and lived a life of radical simplicity that gave him the nickname the “Cynic”, meaning “dog-like”. Diogenes was the first to coin the word “cosmopolitan”, meaning “citizen of the world”. Painting: Jean-Léon Gérôme, Diogenes of Sinope, 1860. (source: Wikipedia)

On December 7, 1972, the crew of Apollo 17, the last manned lunar mission, took their spacecraft out of a parking orbit of the Earth and blasted to the Moon.

Almost two hours into the flight, Harrison Schmitt took a photograph of the planet he had just left. It was an opportunistic shot. Schmitt was…