Cosmopolitanism Quotes

“I am urging that we should learn about people in other places, take an interest in their civilizations, their arguments, their errors, their achievements, not because that will bring us to agreement, but because it will help us get used to one another.”
― Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers

“if relativism about ethics and morality were true, then, at the end of many discussions, we. would each have to end up by saying, “From where I stand, I am right. From where you stand, you are right.” And there would be nothing further to say. From our different perspectives, we. would be living effectively in different worlds. And without a shared world, what is there to discuss? People often recommend relativism because they think it will lead to tolerance. But if we cannot learn from one another what it is right to think and feel and do, then conversation between us will be pointless. Relativism of that sort isn't a way to encourage conversation; it's just a reason to fall silent.”
― Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers

“All Faith is false, all Faith is true: Truth is the shattered mirror strown In myriad bits; while each believes His little bit the whole to own.”
― Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers

“Once you start offering reasons for ignoring the interests of others, however, reasoning itself will usually draw you into a kind of universality. A reason is an offer of a ground for thinking or feeling or doing something. And it isn’t a ground for me, unless it’s a ground for you. If someone really thinks that some group of people genuinely doesn’t matter at all, he will suppose they are outside the circle of those to whom justifications are due.”
― Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers

“My people—human beings—made the Great Wall of China, the Sistine Chapel, the Chrysler Building: these things were made by creatures like me.”
― Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers

“mutatis mutandis,”
― Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers