The essay seeks to disentangle the meaning or meanings of the term ""cosmopolitanism"". The author distinguishеs between three main interpretations: empirical, normative, and practical or interactive. In the first reading, the term coincides with ""globalization"" on the economic, technical, and communicative levels. A different sense is stressed by normative thinkers like Kant, Rawls, and Habermas who concentrate on a set of moral and/or legal norms governing international politics. Noting the is/ought dilemma troubling normativism, the essay introduces the meaning of practical interaction stressing the need for intercultural and inter-societal practical engagement and education.