World Peace, Global Citizenship and the Metaphysics of Polity

Barack Obama, in his State of the Union address to Congress in January 2010, stated that there are partisan divisions which are entrenched because they are based on philosophical difference. This difference was investigated by F.S.C. Northrop in 1946 in The Meeting of East and West (subtitled ‘An Inquiry Concerning World Understanding’). Like the US President, Northrop recognises that political division is based on philosophical difference and sees this division as being irreconcilable unless both sides can agree on a common concept of reality: a shared metaphysics. Northrop's inquiry centres on the variations of a particular metaphysical concept, a three-term or two-term relation, and gives examples of the political use of these variations. He argues that differing political philosophies, which have always caused parties, countries, continents and hemispheres to part ways, are not as entrenched as they first appear - as analysis of their underlying metaphysics shows. This article clarifies, illustrates and discusses this argument by focusing especially on the public or private properties of the terms of this metaphysical relation - and their links to global citizenship. Northrop's argument - despite the orientalism typical of its time and the lack of informed discussion of Islam - is found not only to have inspired further eirenic investigation but also to be worthy of serious consideration today.