Kwame Anthony Appiah's Cosmopolitanism: Ethics In A World Of Strangers

Why do we other and is there an ethical way to live with the other in an increasingly diverse world? In Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, Kwame Anthony Appiah considers otherness as coming from two interconnected concepts: first, the other are those who are not local or related to us; second, we perceive the other to have a conflicting set of values to our own. However, Appiah contends that the values between a group and an other are not significantly different. As for an ethical means of living together with the other, Appiah puts forth the concept of cosmopolitanism, which has two fundamental ideas: that we have an obligation of concern for others; and a respect for what he refers to as “legitimate difference” (Appiah: xv). Additionally, he puts forth that agreement on values is not necessary to live together in society, rather, the necessity is the ability to perform socially required actions regardless of whether there is agreement on the rationale for those actions. The first reason behind why we other, according to Appiah, is locality. We associate ourselves with those people local to us that we see and interact with daily. These are people with whom we share family and tradition. And, more importantly, we share values. The other, then, was

This responsibility is perhaps stronger to those who are kin to us or part of our community, but it also includes those who are other. Appiah insists that one truth the cosmopolitan holds to is “that every human being has obligations to every other. Everybody matters: that is our central idea” (Appiah: 144). In its simplest form, what this looks like is doing “the most you can to minimize the amount of badness in the world” (Appiah: 161). Appiah acknowledges that an individual cannot save everyone or do everything, but that does not take away from the necessity of doing what one