Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers

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Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers

3.56 of 5 stars 3.56 · rating details · 517 ratings · 76 reviews

"A brilliant and humane philosophy for our confused age."Samantha Power, author of A Problem from Hell

Kwame Anthony Appiah's landmark new work, featured on the cover of the New York Times Magazine, challenges the separatist doctrines espoused in books like Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations. Reviving the ancient philosophy of "cosmopolitanism," a school of tho...more

Published (first published January 1st 2006)

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Sep 21, 2007 Sean rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: politics

I have to say I find Appiah’s cosmopolitanism to be incredibly appealing. Call me a globalized liberal who thinks we can work most things out, but the fact that besides a bedrock belief in toleration of all but intolerance, there is little else that exists as a absolute in Appiah's thinking is attractive to me.

I am sick of all encompassing theories. But I am also wary of an all out relativism. Appiah seems to be trying to walk a line somewhere in the middle. He argues that through engagement, "c...more

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Jul 03, 2008 Babette rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of Tom Friedman, debunkers of Tom Friedman

Appiah writes elegantly about cosmopolitanism, lacing his narrative (employing "we" as in, "we cosmopolitans") with anecdotes, effectively referencing philosophers, authors, and the like. The book is insidious, however...too easy in its conclusions. It celebrates the "contamination" of cosmopolitanism's curiousity and engagement with difference without critiquing seriously enough the uneven distributions of power that produce and map those differences. Moreover, there is little if any acknowledg...more

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Jan 25, 2008 Louise Sandhaus rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone!

Recommended to Louise by: Susan Yelavich

Everyone everywhere who lives in a complex world should read this book. It takes a difficult topic: How do we live in a world that's diverse and contradictory – and engages a thoughtful and gentle conversation and consideration about this subject

This books is intensely well-written. Appiah's concepts and arguments are exemplified and explained anecdotally through his own personal experience. He generously uses these diverse cultural experiences as models, thus cutting down the abstraction of phi...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Jesse Field is currently reading it · review of another edition

From "Introduction: Making Conversation"

Cosmopolitism dates at least to the Cynics of the fourth century BC, who first cointed the expression cosmopolitan, ‘citizen of cosmos.’ The formulation was meant to be paradoxical, and reflects the general Cynic skepticism toward custom and tradition. A citizen -- a polite-s -- belonged to a particular polis, a city to which he or she owed loyalty. The cosmos referred to the world, not in the sense of the earth, but in the sense of the universe. Talk of

...more

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May 18, 2009 Caleb rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a student of philosophy, and as a person genuinely interested in the type of project that Appiah pursues herein, I became increasingly frustrated with his work here. In an attempt to avoid metaphysical claims--and the subsequent alienation such notions entail--but, in the process, fails to come up with a coherent theory for dealing with these issues. His examples and storytelling feel frequently like counterexamples as much as examples to make his points.

I was very interested in Appiah's proj...more

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Mar 22, 2010 Phillip Rhoades rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, non-fiction

My interest in Professor Appiah's work began a week ago when he presented at SUU on the topic of "Moral Disagreement", one of the chapters in this book. I was pleased to witness a writing style as engaging as his oration. Kwame Appiah explains a complicated philosophy with both whit and wisdom; he uses modern examples to highlight the central tenants of ageless cosmopolitanism. While the book succeeds at detailing a philosophy that deals with the challenges of a "global", modern life (though as...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Dave rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A very interesting read and highly appropriate in this era of global communication and fear of a one-world-government cabal. His background growing up partly a child of Africa in Ghana and partly a child of England, and his education in the USA give the author an interesting perspective. His chapter on beliefs and values was fascinating, and his argument for leaving some of those treasures in the British Museum won me over. I also related to his take on some of Peter Singer's thinking in his cha...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Ian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Engaging writing about the challenges of living in an ever globalising world... Appiah is optimistic about the potential for people to understand, if not agree, with those from other cultures. That said, he does not shy away from taking strong standpoints on ethics, arguing against cultural relativism, that something may be wrong for you but not for me. There is objective truth behind ethical principles and they are not subject simply to cultural whim, Appiah argues. It is from this robust posit...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Peter Powers rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A strong, nuanced account of Cosmopolitanism that doesn't let the reader rest easy with politically correct platitudes or be content with simplistic accounts of our responsibilities to others, even while insisting that those responsibilities are real, universal, and far more demanding intellectually and politically than we might first suspect. In the end I thought the connections between Appiahs account of Cosmopolitanism and the specific actions that might be incumbent upon us in living out a c...more

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Jun 17, 2009 Michele rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't always find books by philosophers easy to read, but I think that's just because I often don't understand the shorthand references to "Hegalian" perspectives and such that require a knowledge of philosophy to interpret.

But this book is a really nicely balanced discussion of Appiah's personal history, globalism (or cosmopolitanism in the author's terminology) and ethics. It goes beyond the simplicity of 'multiculturalism' or 'globalization' to investigate and value the ways in which we are...more

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Mar 21, 2009 Rashaan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: academics-textbooks-pedagogy

Pico Iyer opened his New York Times review of Yiyun Li's latest novel, The Vagrants saying,

All the world's stories are America's stories now, and this constant glory of our literature; as never before in our lifetimes, so many histories flooding into America, and so many Americans going out to claim the world as an extension of their homes, that our imaginations are being stretched (one hopes) along with the words we use, the wisdoms we inhabit, the sounds and philosophies we can begin to reinve

...more Pico Iyer opened his New York Times review of Yiyun Li's latest novel, The Vagrants saying,

All the world's stories are America's stories now, and this constant glory of our literature; as never before in our lifetimes, so many histories flooding into America, and so many Americans going out to claim the world as an extension of their homes, that our imaginations are being stretched (one hopes) along with the words we use, the wisdoms we inhabit, the sounds and philosophies we can begin to reinvent. What Barack Obama represents on the global stage, those of his generation and younger (from Kenya, from the Dominican Republic, from Korea) are bringing to life on the planetary page

From our Latino landscapers, to our South or South East Asian nurse technicians, to our U.S. Banks inextricably intertwined with international banks, as Gertrude Stein said, "there is no there there" because "there" is here, and the other is us. The world is hot, flat, and crowded, so says Tom Friedmann. How do we stay cool, calm, and compassionate? Kwame Anthony Appiah proposes a philosophy and world view in his book, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, which outlines how we can stretch our imaginations, why we should inhabit the sounds and philosophies different from our own, and how we can reinvent ourselves and our worldview while we struggle to co-exist on this shrinking, ozone-depleted, big, blue ball.

Like our 44th president and like most people of younger generations, including myself, Appiah is of mixed race. His mother, English, his father from Ghana, Appiah was raised in his father's homeland and currently teaches at Princeton University. In Cosmpolitanism he speaks compassionately and honestly about pluralism; his philosophy obviously and insightfully infused with his own multiracial, multi-cultural, and multi-national heritage. Filled with critical examinations about how we are all inter-connected, whether we like it or not, debates on cultural property, evaluations of facts versus faith, and questions against our own prized rationalism, Appiah succinctly defines his philosophy of Cosmopolitanism at the beginning of the text as: "the one thought that cosmopolitans share is that no local loyalty can ever justify forgetting that each human being has responsibilities to every other." Though he warns at the beginning, "There's a sense in which cosmopolitanism is the name not of the solution but of the challenge."

His philosophical treatise is crammed with enlightened and engaging anecdotes about his father's tribe, the Akan, and stories he's heard from colleagues or lifted from the news. Appiah, overall, makes a strong case in explaining his philosophical ideals, yet at the conclusion he problematizes his thesis when he tries to argue why we should be responsible for another life clear across the big blue ball. In the concluding chapter he bookends his thesis with a reference to a Balzac story, Pere Goirot, and this fiction is his last scrap of evidence to reason a pressing yet stubbornly abstract argument. Why use fiction as support, especially when trying to convince us to make living, breathing connections across a very real and often volatilely physical world? As a fiction writer, I'm honored that a philosopher would turn to story-telling and invoke, therefore virtually vindicate a genre often excused as anachronistic entertainment. Appiah pays tribute to the magic that stories conjure. He praises how fiction allows us to imagine alternatives in what could otherwise be a cold and unforgiving world. Still, this nod to stories and their import is at the cost of his entire thesis, and, as a Composition instructor, as well, in the end, his case doesn't hold water if he's going to refer to the make-believe.

Students in my Argument & Research were assigned to read and write about Appiah's book, and they grappled with complex ideas, seeming to be genuinely interested in the principles Appiah critiqued and proposed. Inspired by Appiah's sincere and compassionate treatise, I was able to develop some very creative and urgently relevant formal writing assignments. As a class, we were all humbled by the complexity and diversity of humanity, and, as Appiah so gently nudged us to do, we actively felt more connected to the world at large. Mission accomplished!
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Jun 23, 2012 Upom rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, nonfiction, morality, culture, imperialism, ethics, globalization, 2000s, 21st-century, intellectual-property, worth-rereading

Considering how quickly the world is globalizing and how integrated the world is becoming, it brings up the interesting question of what composes ethical behavior in a world of a multitude of cultural beliefs, practice, values, and norms. Some people have suggested the only proper way to go is total hostility towards "inferior" cultures. Others believe we should answer with complete apathy to the cultures of he world, letting them live and let be as is. In this book, Appiah attempts to come to a...more

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Mar 20, 2010 Worthless Bum rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ethics, philosophy

Thoroughly, disappointingly mediocre. A couple of the arguments in this book were pretty terrible, the rest being rather tepid. Appiah disagrees with Peter Singer et al about the conclusions drawn from the Shallow Pond thought experiment, in which we are said to have very demanding ethical obligations to donate as much of our worldly possessions as possible to help the poor in the third world. His objection to this argument? We can't know all of the consequences of our actions, so we can't say t...more Thoroughly, disappointingly mediocre. A couple of the arguments in this book were pretty terrible, the rest being rather tepid. Appiah disagrees with Peter Singer et al about the conclusions drawn from the Shallow Pond thought experiment, in which we are said to have very demanding ethical obligations to donate as much of our worldly possessions as possible to help the poor in the third world. His objection to this argument? We can't know all of the consequences of our actions, so we can't say that the sort of austere altruism drawn out from the Shallow Pond is the ethical thing to do. Really Kwame? Then how is it that this purported fog of epistemic uncertainty leaves any room for casuistry or ethics at all - for if ignorance of the full extent of the consequences of our actions is good enough reason to obviate an ethical duty, then NO action can be judged ethical because the full consequences of every single action can not be teased out. Appiah could have made something similar to R.M. Hare's suggestion of adopting general rules of thumb for ethical behavior, since neither can we know the full consequences of our actions nor do we have the time to examine the consequences of every trivial decision we make in a robust way. Then there is Bernard Williams who contends that utilitarianism demands too much of us, and that we should devote time and money to personal projects that we find meaningful. But I digress.

The other ridiculous argument that comes to mind is where Appiah criticizes the view that logical positivism takes on ethics. Following the tradition of Hume, logical positivists hold to the categorical distinction between is and ought. Facts describe actual states of affairs, they "are". Ethical claims say how states of affairs OUGHT to be. So it would seem that one could not settle ethical questions with merely an appeal to the facts, or vice-versa. Appiah's response to this is a radical interpretation of underdetermination. He claims that all scientific descriptions of reality are underdetermined, that some alternate theory could hold equally well or better with the given facts. Ergo, the uncertainty surrounding ethical questions is matched by uncertainty surrounding matters of fact. How this is supposed to help Appiah's case I can't be sure.

The one thing in this book that Appiah does well is explaining the difficulty in convincing people of something when their view of the world is radically different. It would be quite challenging, for instance, to convince a remote tribe that disease is caused by pathogens when it is central to their world view that diseases are curses from angry spirits. Much preliminary education and paradigm shifting would have to take place before the tribespeople would find the germ theory of disease plausible.

The rest of the book is largely a tepid plea for having interculturally shared values and mutual respect for diversity and differences of opinion. (less)

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May 10, 2010 Dave rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010

Reading through this one for the third (second serious) time, I found Appiah's initial reasoning sound, but I took issue with some of his pronouncements towards the end. It's not that anything he said was wrong, illogical, or incorrect. He paints a picture where curious and sincere individuals from around the globe can develop through interactions, exchanges, interdependence, and mutual obligation. My only critique is that Appiah fails to recognize (through omission, and perhaps, only through to...more

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Jan 24, 2009 sheena rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-japan

ethics. ethics. ethics!

appiah raises some good questions about our responsibility to the world and our fellow citizens. at the beginning i felt that the book lacked urgency, but towards the end it is easier to see how his philosophies do (and for some, could) function in our current world.

while tasty, the text isn't that filling, so maybe it serves as a ground on which appiah will build more compelling and consuming arguments. i mean maybe it is some sort of appetizer. (i look forward to the f...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Marie-Frances Mozina rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I LOVED THIS BOOK! Completely love it! This book taught me so much about being a citizen of the world. How not to see the world from my side, from my view, but from everyone's perspectives! It was interesting to realized how narrow my view of the world is. I have to stop being worried about what happens in my surroundings and start looking what happens in the entire world. Definitely, I'm a citizen of the world after reading this book. Thanks Kwame Anthony Appiah!

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Jun 06, 2011 Pavol rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, political-theory, philosophy

If you haven't really read or thought about political, cultural and economic globalization and some of its moral implications, this might be a good book to start the conversation. If you're a complete naif, you might even find it illuminating. It is written in a breezy and chatty style, not too taxing or ponderous, but then it tends to be somewhat obvious, or even at times (especially in the first half) outright boring, especially if you've read anything more than a newspaper column.

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Jan 09, 2009 Nicolas Shump rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Kwame Appiah's Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers is a brilliant and lucid book that attempts to make a case for shared values in our increasingly fragmented world. Appiah was trained as an analytic and moral philosopher, but he also wrote the foundational text on African philosophy that has been part of the movement to get away from the narrow confines of traditional continental philosophy.
Personally Appiah is the son of a Ghanian father and an English mother. He incorporates his...more

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Apr 09, 2009 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008, books-i-own, philosophy, school-books, september

This is a thought-provoking, very practical and applicable study of cosmopolitanism -- the title really says it all. I loved reading this and applying Appiah's understandings of cosmopolitanism to Moby Dick, which was why we had to read this text. I am so thrilled my professor introduced Appiah to me. I had a chance to hear him speak last semester, and I recommend it to anyone who has the time.

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Nov 24, 2008 Reb rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: continuing-education

excellent, quick, readable philosophy treatise on getting along with strangers: conversation is the crucial human activity that allows us to articulate real existing values; there are real Goods and Bads. clear credible arguments against relativism, positivism, and peter singer...

BUT it's a little too easy and a little too short! could go to the next level. however i do enjoy me some popular philosophy.

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May 11, 2010 Vilja rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I appreciate the complex questions which Appiah raises and that he does not accept easy answers. At the end, I felt that he fell into some of the same methods of reasoning which he criticizes in others. I also feel that his concluding focus solely on giving money gives us an easy way to avoid having to actually think about other people.

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Aug 27, 2012 Vadim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Необыкновенно ясная и легкая речь. Свежие мысли об отсутствии фундаментального различия между суждениями о факте и суждениями о должном. Но мало собственно разбора практических приложений логики автора: последняя небольшая глава оставляет эту работу по большей части самому читателю. Возможно, это не так и плохо.

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Jul 01, 2010 Mara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Whiile Dr. Appiah remains my recently crowned favorite living philosopher, I found this second book that I read less raw than the first and somewhat less powerful. Still appreciated gaining a better understanding of what cosmopolitanism means relative to other philosophical concepts and feel a natural affinity towards it. Also found the additional perspective on Kwame's life story from Ghana/Asante to London to NYC interesting along with his use of other cultural examples to illustrate the human...more

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Aug 08, 2009 William rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: our-own-copy

The best idea I noticed in reading this book was that while we might not be able to agree with other cultures, and we might not even understand other cultures, we can at least get used to other cultures. And it turns out that being used to another culture gets us a lot more than it might seem at first.

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Feb 27, 2011 Jordan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

COSMOPOLITANISM is lean, jargon-free prose about to whom we are morally responsible in the twenty-first century. Appiah, who is gay, black, and Ghanaian, does a phenomenal job of incorporating his own (and his families') experiences into his arguments. I enjoyed it more than most of the novels I've recently been reading, particularly its first couple of chapters, "The Shattered Mirror" and "The Problems of Positivism," and its final chapter that reckons with Peter Singer and Peter Unger's brand...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Nicole rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Read this for a college course on global problem solving, and it changed my life. He writes in an accessible way about difficult topics and provides helpful frameworks-for-thinking for the reader. Wouldn't have picked this up on my own, so I'm glad someone made me read it.

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Sep 13, 2010 Sarah Orme rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cosmopolitanism-a name that universal believers in humanity share. I like this book more than Appiah's other works because it is philosophical writing for the less philosophical reader. I don't believe in the practicality of everything he writes but I still find it interesting.

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May 28, 2007 Javier rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: collegeleisuretime

I did like his emphasis on cross-cultural 'conversation' as a means of promoting mutual understanding (and not necessarily harmony and love, etc.), but I find something deeply wrong with an account of cosmopolitanism being written by someone who admits he doesn't even know what one human's obligation to another is. I feel that his prescriptions were rather superficial and feel-good for the affluent Western audiences he's targeting--and in this sense, not cognizant enough of the tragic dispositio...more

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May 30, 2009 Cecile marked it as to-read · review of another edition

This is recommended by my Dad. He's reading it this summer with incoming Plan II freshman. See http://www.utexas.edu/student/reading for the reading list it's on and his comments.

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Jul 05, 2012 Charles Levenstein rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A very interesting book -- trying to find space between universal values and cultural diversity. But class-bound. All viewed from a very high perch.

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About Kwame Anthony Appiah

Kwame Anthony Appiah, the president of the PEN American Center, is the author of The Ethics of Identity, Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy, The Honor Code and the prize-winning Cosmopolitanism. Raised in Ghana and educated in England, he has taught philosophy on three continents and is currently a professor at Princeton University.

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The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen

In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture

Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy

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