Princeton Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah Espouses Cosmopolitanism as Antidote to Cross-Cultural Strife
Mar 12, 2009 By: yunews
Mar 12, 2009 -- To live as a 鈥渃itizen of the world,鈥 as the eminent philosopher and Princeton University Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah urges us to do as best we may, is to heed an ancient prescription from Diogenes, the 5th-century Greek philosopher, that could heal the violence of our own time. Appiah is the YU Center for Ethics鈥 Third Annual Scholar-in-Residence.
Diogenes鈥 notions of what he first termed 鈥渃osmopolitanism,鈥 Appiah said in his lecture to 200 at the 91黑料 Museum, are 鈥減articularly useful when we are faced with the sorts of conflicts grounded in religious, ethnic, racial and national identities, which pervade our world.鈥
He added, 鈥淚f you accept that you live in a world with many different kinds of people, and you鈥檙e going to try to live in respectful peace with them, then you need to understand each other, even if you don鈥檛 agree.鈥
Such tolerance and humility might have been easy for Diogenes to espouse, the professor noted in his lecture, titled 鈥淐osmopolitanism and the Ethics of Identity.鈥 In his time, after all, Diogenes 鈥渄idn鈥檛 know about most people鈥 beyond the Hellenic world, and 鈥渘othing he did was likely to have much impact on them.鈥
But in today鈥檚 global society, said Appiah, cosmopolitanism is the crucial antidote to cross-cultural strife, leading so often to genocide and war.
鈥淲e have come to a point where each of us can realistically imagine contacting any other of our six billion fellow human beings鈥 for either noble or malicious purpose, said Appiah. 鈥淎nd the possibilities of good or ill are multiplied beyond all measure when it comes to policies carried out by governments in our name.鈥
It falls to us individually, therefore, to embrace another ancient concept: eudaimonia, Greek for 鈥渇lourishing,鈥 as articulated by Aristotle.
The cosmopolitan quest for universality of humankind amidst the irony of endlessly human difference, Appiah said, is an ongoing negotiation 鈥渁mong [our] many identities鈥攔ace, religion, gender, class, sexual orientation, profession鈥攗sing them in [a] search for eudaimonia.鈥
But the 鈥渆nemies of cosmopolitanism鈥 likewise flourish, he said, namely those who 鈥渄eny the legitimacy of universality and those who deny the legitimacy of difference.鈥
Himself a Protestant Christian of British and Ghanian parentage reared in the polyglot West African city of Kumasi, population 1.5 million, Appiah chose the words of a Muslim academician鈥擜hmed al-Tayeb, president of the Cairo university Al-Azhar鈥攖o underscore the point of his lecture sponsored by a Jewish institution: 鈥淕od created diverse peoples. Had He wanted to create a single ummah [community of faith], He would have, but He chose to make them different鈥very Muslim must fully understand this principle. A relationship based on conflict is futile.鈥
Appiah also spoke about 鈥淩eligious Identity as a Challenge to Modern Politics鈥 at Yeshiva鈥檚 Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law on March 12 and met with Yeshiva College students at a small roundtable event to address the question, 鈥淚s There Room for a Religious State in a Global World?鈥
