Seite - 136 - in Reflective Cosmopolitanism - Educating towards inclusive communities through Philosophical Enquiry

136 REfLECTIvE COsMOPOLITANIsM Discussion Plan: Just/Unjust • If something is just, is it just for everyone? • If something is just for others, is it also just for me? • Does “being just” mean “law-abiding?” • What is the difference between “just” and “correct?” • Can I do something just, but in an unjust way? • Can I do something unjust, but in a just way? • Can a person be considered just, even if he /she does something against the law? • Is there an universal law that is valid all over the word? If so, how can we define it? Episode 3: What is mine is mine, what is yours is mine, what is theirs is mine too… Or not? Leading Idea 1: Social Pact In the third episode, Jensika and Mario have a violent discussion and come to blows with some teenagers who are in the park and are claiming the right to occupy a larger space than others. Conflict is inevitable and it will be up to Mario to come to an agreement with the gang’s leader, with whom his friends have fought. Parks are public spaces and the main characters of the story think that there should not be borders or property limits. How- ever, clearly when people have the same rights to everything, the possibility of conflict is inevitable. Hence, in order to guarantee a peaceful co-existence within a space chosen as a space for their socialization, the main characters have to make a pact with people whom they do not consider particularly nice. If we view the episode under this perspec- tive, it could refer to the idea of a social pact and in particular to the thought of the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes who theorized the existence of a hypothetical state of nature in which human beings have all the same rights to everything. Because one of the natural laws is that of survival, every human being takes possession of whatever is within reach, including the life of others. That is, every man is a wolf for the other man (homo homini lupus). In the state of nature, human beings are in the condition of permanent war. Reason allows human beings to leave the state of nature, pushing them to form pacts between themselves in order to stop a war of all against all, which would otherwise be counterpro- ductive for their survival. In leaving the state of nature, humanity establishes its natural laws. Of these, the first law is aimed at maintaining peace and the second law is aimed at respecting pacts. Through reason, human beings realize that one’s liberty is necessarily limited by the liberty of the Other. Accordingly, in the third episode, the teenagers agree to divide the same space, thereby limiting each other. This can be interpreted as a form of social pact. In a cosmopolitan society, the differences and conflicts that can come up affect the predetermined social conditions, and what might be taken for granted in regard to the sharing of spaces might change. If, for example, we think of the places where boys and girls informally spend their free time, how might the introduction of different cultures affect the encounter in terms of territory? Would the ‘outsiders’ be accepted or rejected? Would the initial occupiers be overturned? What conflicts might arise? What informal solutions could be adopted to solve these possible conflicts?