Summary Of Kwame Anthony Appiah

Kwame Anthony Appiah, one of the world’s most preeminent philosophers, asserts that cultural and language barriers and conflict of values are excuses that force people to forget the powerful ties that connect people all across the world. Appiah demands us to recognize that – all human beings are citizens of the world – cosmopolitan, and more similar than their differences may make them seem. According to Appiah, the fate of humanity depends on people’s willingness to become global citizens and to reach across national and cultural boundaries, to find a commonplace of human morality. Appiah believes in a universal responsibility, an ideal that everyone is responsible for his or her neighbors – both foreign and domestic. He stresses the importance
In East Asia, responsibility is usually seen as being responsible to one’s education and to one’s elders. Conversely, responsibility in the Western (Americanized) sense is usually seen as being responsible to protect others from unfair treatment, to promote a sense of fairness, and to be responsible for one’s own life and for one’s own actions. Thus, as said before, responsibility is a word that means multiple things. Therefore, when Appiah attempts to construct this idea of global responsibility, it can mean different things to others. If responsibility is looked as being responsible for one’s education, then it may improve the educational attainment around the world, but also fail to make improvement in other aspects such as social and economic issues. This becomes a problem because we then begin to address different responsibilities as being lesser or greater than others.
In addition, a notion of global responsibility must involve some sense of coercion to work. If someone does not adhere to that notion of global responsibility, how will Appiah convince him or her to support it voluntarily? It is impossible to reason that enough of the world will support a global cosmopolitanism, especially if they are forced to fund