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“A brilliant and humane philosophy for our confused age.”―Samantha Power, author of A Problem from Hell
Drawing on a broad range of disciplines, including history, literature, and philosophy―as well as the author's own experience of life on three continents―?Cosmopolitanism? is a moral manifesto for a planet we share with more than six billion strangers.
- Sales Rank: #20188 in Books
- Brand: Appiah, Kwame Anthony
- Published on: 2007-02-17
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.30" h x .60" w x 5.50" l, .44 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 224 pages
From Publishers Weekly
In a world more interconnected than ever, the responsibilities and obligations we share remain matters of volatile debate. Weighing in on a discourse that includes both visions of "clashing civilizations" and often equally misguided cultural relativism, Ghana-born Princeton philosopher Appiah (In My Father's House) reclaims a tradition of creative exchange and imaginative engagement across lines of difference. This cosmopolitan ethic, which he traces from the Greek Cynics and through to the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, must inevitably balance universals with respect for particulars. This balance comes through "conversation," a term Appiah uses literally and metaphorically to signal the depth of encounters across national, religious and other forms of identity. At the same time, Appiah stresses conversation needn't involve consensus, since living together mostly entails just getting used to one another. Amid the good and bad of globalization, the author parses some basic cultural-philosophical beliefs—drawing frequent examples from his own far-flung multicultural family as well as from impersonal relationships of exchange and power—to focus due attention on widespread and unexamined assumptions about identity, difference and morality. A stimulating read, leavened by cheerful, fluid prose, the book will challenge fashionable theories of irreconcilable divides with a practical and pragmatic worldview that revels in difference and the adventure of a shared humanity. This is an excellent start to Norton's new Issues of Our Time series. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From The New Yorker
Appiah, a Princeton philosophy professor, articulates a precise yet flexible ethical manifesto for a world characterized by heretofore unthinkable interconnection but riven by escalating fractiousness. Drawing on his Ghanaian roots and on examples from philosophy and literature, he attempts to steer a course between the extremes of liberal universalism, with its tendency to impose our values on others, and cultural relativism, with its implicit conviction that gulfs in understanding cannot be bridged. Cosmopolitanism, in Appiah's formulation, balances our "obligations to others" with the "value not just of human life but of particular human lives"—what he calls "universality plus difference." Appiah remains skeptical of simple maxims for ethical behavior—like the Golden Rule, whose failings as a moral precept he swiftly demonstrates—and argues that cosmopolitanism is the name not "of the solution but of the challenge."
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker
Review
“A welcome attempt to resurrect an older tradition of moral and political reflection and to show its relevance to our current condition.” (John Gray - The Nation)
“Cosmopolitanism is... of wide interest―invitingly written and enlivened by personal history.... Appiah is wonderfully perceptive and levelheaded about this tangle of issues.” (Thomas Nagel - The New Republic)
“Elegantly provocative.” (Edward Rothstein - New York Times)
“[Appiah's] belief in having conversations across boundaries, and in recognizing our obligations to other human beings, offers a welcome prescription for a world still plagued by fanaticism and intolerance.” (Kofi A. Annan, former United Nations secretary-general)
“[Appiah's] exhilarating exposition of his philosophy knocks one right off complacent balance.... All is conveyed with flashes of iconoclastic humor.” (Nadine Gordimer, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature)
“An attempt to redefine our moral obligations to others based on a very humane and realistic outlook and love of art.... I felt like a better person after I read it, and I recommend the same experience to others.” (Orham Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature)
Most helpful customer reviews
47 of 47 people found the following review helpful.
Becoming Cosmopolitan
By Dr. Richard G. Petty
One of the most pernicious ideas has spung from the myth that we are necessarily separated and segregated into groups that are defined by criteria like gender, language, race, religion or some other kind of boundary. And it is easy to see that these boundaries are a major cause of conflict.
The author of this enthralling book - Kwame Anthony Appiah - challenges this kind of separative thinking by resurrecting the ancient philosophy of "cosmopolitanism." This school of thought that dates back almost 2500 years to the Cynics of Ancient Greece. They first articulated the cosmopolitan ideal that all human beings were citizens of the world. Later on, these ideas were elaborated by another group of philosophers: the Stoics.
According to Appiah, the influence of cosmopolitanism has stretched down the ages and through to the Enlightenment. He takes Immanuel Kant's notion of a League of Nations and the Declaration of the Rights of Man to be two manifestations of this ancient idea.
Appiah sees cosmopolitanism as a dynamic concept based on two fundamental ideas. First is the idea that we have responsibilities to others that are beyond those based on kinship or citizenship. Second is something often forgotten: just because other people have different customs and beliefs from ours, they will likely still have meaning and value. We may not agree with someone else, but mutual understanding should be a first goal.
The book is full of personal experiences. I doubt that anyone else could have written it: His mother was an English author and daughter of the statesman Sir Stafford Cripps, and his father a Ghanaian barrister and politician, who reminded his children to remember that they were "citizens of the world."
Appiah was educated in Ghana and England and has taught in both countries. He now holds a chair of Philosophy at Princeton. He is no starry eyed idealist, and he knows that differences between groups and nations cannot be wished away or ignored. But he contends, rightly, I think, that differences can be accepted without being allowed to become barriers.
As he says, "Cosmopolitans suppose that all cultures have enough overlap in their vocabulary of values to begin a conversation. But they don't suppose, like some Universalists, that we could all come to agreement if only we had the same vocabulary." The reason is simply this: most of us arrive at our values not on the basis of careful reasoning, but by lifelong conditioning and subjective beliefs and attitudes.
In parts of Europe, there have recently been misgivings about the growing diversity and multiculturalism of countries like the United Kingdom, with people asking whether it is doing no more than fracturing society. Appiah tackles this question head on. He has this to say, "If we want to preserve a wide range of human conditions because it allows free people the best chance to make their own lives, there is no place for the enforcement of diversity by trapping people within a kind of difference that they long to escape. There simply is no decent way to sustain those communities of difference that will not survive without the free allegiance of their members."
Cosmopolitanism, balances our "obligations to others" with the "value not just of human life but of particular human lives," what Appiah calls "universality plus difference." He remains skeptical about simple maxims for ethical behavior such as the Golden Rule. He swiftly demonstrates its failings as a moral precept. He argues that cosmopolitanism is the name not "of the solution but of the challenge."
This is an important book that will inevitably be controversial. In a world that is becoming more interconnected and shrinking by the day, and where the "clash of cultures" threatens our existence, Appiah has many new perspectives as he articulates a precise yet flexible ethical manifesto. He does not claim to have all the answers, but this book should be of interest to all of us as we try to make sense of the turmoil, challenges and opportunities of our globalizing world.
35 of 37 people found the following review helpful.
Citizens of the World: Please Unite
By D. S. Heersink
Appiah has written an intelligent, urbane, and concise analysis of, and prescription for, the global world we have come to inhabit. His title "Cosmopolitan" is intended to evoke its etymology, that we are "citizens of the world." Unlike Robert Wright in "The Moral Animal," Appiah rejects a one-world government, insisting we need to maintain a pluralistic system of governments for the ostensible purpose of creative enhancements, e.g., changes to the existent models through new insights, programs, and trial-and-error (hopefully, with errors corrected).
This book tackles some of the ethical issues involved as the global perspective is taking shape. Most of his prescriptions are pragmatic (Chap. 4: "Primacy of Practice"), rather than doctrinaire, evidenced most clearly in his chapter on pluralistic cultures and how best to "manage" their differences (Chap. 8: "Whose Culture Is It, Anyway?"). He clearly disdains the positivist approach ("Escape from Positivism"), yet in spite of this disdain, he keeps to the empirical side of most questions (Chap. 3: "Evidence on the Ground"). Aristotlean common-sense is offered where it's needed.
That we are all neighbors should by now be obvious (Chap. 5: "Imaginary Strangers" and passim), and while capitalism is accepted, not without its fetters. Islamic and Christian fundamentalism are reproved appropriately (Chap. 9: "The Counter-Cosmopolitans"), while the Anglican-type of latitudinarianism is espoused (without the religious particulars). "Pluralism" is our global credo, to which I heartily reply, "Amen." I often wish we recognized it as our national credo as well.
He forthrightly repudiates Singer's and Unger's utilitarian "moral calculi," and extols a person-centered ethic in their stead. He also insists that the "stranger" is no longer an alien, and we still need to heed the New Testament's advice (Rom. 12:11: "Contribute to the needs of the saints, extend hospitality to strangers"). Indeed, we all come "at" our situations with different assumptions and histories, and, with some obvious exceptions, we owe each other respect as we "converse" in hopes of appreciating our differences and understanding our common ground.
Multiculturalism, besides being incoherent, is not the solution, because "original cultures" are a myth, and not all cultures are "equal." He takes issue with cultural "contamination" and its typical reaction of "disgust," offering examples of inappropriate stigmitization (e.g., homosexuality, unusual religious beliefs, etc.). Only when we recognize each other as "fellow citizens," and respect everyone enough to engage them seriously, then we're on the course to mutual respect, pluralistic tolerance, and genuine concern. And the Golden Rule, while not perfect, isn't a bad place to start. Ultimately, there is no "us" vs. "them," for we're all citizens of the same world.
32 of 35 people found the following review helpful.
Less than it seems
By David J. Krause
In my opinion this book deserves considerably less acclaim than it appears to have received. As a modest call for understanding among cultural groups, who could disagree? Appiah, however, himself a product of two contrasting cultures, here takes on a more daunting task: reconciling his respect for the cultures of both his African father and English mother, but the result is a rather incoherent narrative, especially in chapters 2 and 3. This is perhaps best demonstrated by two statements that appear on p-42. In defense of his paternal culture, he first writes "There is nothing unreasonable, then, about my kinsmen's belief in witchcraft." His word "then" is a reflection of his claim, made on the previous pages, that the "Duhem thesis" allows him to argue that all attempts to grasp reality are culturally conditioned and can therefore be regarded as "valid" within the cultures in which they arise. However, this claim seriously misconstrues the Duhem thesis, with Appiah's arguments reflecting the postmodernist thinking of the "science wars" era of some 30 years ago that is now largely discredited. But then comes his second statement as his mother's culture comes to the fore: "What's wrong with the theory of witchcraft is not that it doesn't make sense but that it isn't true." In these two statements one can see the tension in Appiah's struggle to reconcile his bicultural upbringing. That his Asante father really believes he is communicating with his ancestors when he pours whiskey on the floor (p-34) may be interesting, but that is hardly a convincing alternative to the scientific worldview of his maternal forebearers.
Another problem is Appiah's seeming unawareness that "culture" can be a literal prison for a sensitive person raised within it. In defense of what used to be called "female genital mutilation" he here (p-73) tells African women that the operation can be regarded as "an expression of your cultural identity." Try telling that to Hirsi Ali, whose efforts to free herself, at considerable personal risk, of the bonds of a very similar cultural background after having received such a "cultural identity" mark has attracted worldwide attention. Also unmentioned by him is any recognition that over the span of human history it has often been precisely those who found the courage to think and act in opposition to their cultural heritage who became some of humanity's greatest benefactors. When confronted by epilepsy Jesus saw only a boy possessed by demons, but 400 years earlier while discussing that same disease Hippocrates mocked his cultural compatriots and their demon-haunted world by claiming that epilepsy was nothing more than the result of natural causes, and he thereby laid the foundations for the long journey that culminated in the benefits of modern medicine. Appiah's primary motivation seems to be a desire to step on no one's toes, but his efforts are unconvincing, and he might well have considered these comments of Edward Grant, a major figure in understanding the history of science. While speaking of the cultural backwardness of medieval Europe when faced by the superior cultures of the Middle East, Grant wrote:
"Latin scholars in the 12th century recognized that not all cultures are equal. They were painfully aware that with respect to science and natural philosophy, their civilization was manifestly inferior to that of Islam. They faced an obvious choice: learn from their superiors or remain inferior forever. They chose to learn. Had they assumed that all cultures were equal . . . they would have had no reason to seek out Arab learning and the glorious scientific legacy that followed would not have occurred."
Well said, even though Appiah provides little evidence of grasping the significance of such a perspective.
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