Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers

A short book for general readers on how to live ethically in a world where strangers are now neighbours. Appiah defends a cosmopolitanism with two strands: we owe something to every human being, and we should respect legitimate differences in how people live. He calls this a partial cosmopolitanism, since loyalty to one's own place and people can coexist with concern for everyone. He argues against the view that values are mere opinions, but also against expecting agreement on first principles; what matters is the primacy of practice, since people can often agree on what to do without agreeing why. Conversation, meaning engagement with other ways of life, is his model. He defends cultural contamination, the mixing of cultures, against the ideal of purity, questions claims that cultural treasures belong only to the nations where they were found, and contrasts cosmopolitans with counter-cosmopolitans who are universalist but intolerant of difference.

It offers a clear, practical ethics for living with difference, useful for anyone thinking about globalisation, migration, cultural heritage or moral disagreement.