Synopses & Reviews
We have grown accustomed in this anxious, post-9/II era to constructing a world fissured by warring creeds and cultures. Much of humanity now seems separated by chasms of incomprehension. Kwame Anthony Appiah's landmark new work challenges the separatist doctrines espoused in books such as Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations. Reviving the ancient philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, a school of thought that dates to the Cynics of the fourth century BCE, Appiah traces its influence on the ethical legacies of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, Kant's dream of a league of nations, and the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In doing so, Appiah shows how Western intellectuals and leaders, on both the left and the right, have wildly exaggerated the power of difference and neglected the power of one. One world. One species. Challenging years of received wisdom, Cosmopolitanism is a resounding work of philosophy and global culture.
Review
"Kwame Anthony Appiah's Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers is a welcome attempt to resurrect an older tradition of moral and political reflection and to show its relevance to our current condition." The Nation
Review
"Cosmopolitanism clearly explains key issues in moral theory and is highly recommended..." Library Journal
Review
"[P]ondering the ethics of relationships in an increasingly connected world can be a rewarding as well as challenging task. Cosmopolitanism provides valuable starting points for taking on that task." Dallas Morning News
Review
"Appiah's new book, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers...urges a pragmatic sociability on people who ordinarily manage encounters with their neighbors through guarded gates, blocked phone numbers and tinted car windows..." Los Angeles Times
About the Author
Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy at Princeton University, was raised in Ghana and educated at Clare College, Cambridge. His books include In My Father's House, Thinking It Through, and The Ethics of Identity. With Henry Louis Gates Jr. he is the editor of Africana.