Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers

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Allen Lane, 2006 - Political Science - 196 pages
This landmark work challenges the separatist doctrines which have come to dominate our understanding of the world. Appiah revives the ancient philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, which dates back to the Cynics of the 4th century. He traces its history through the legacies of the Enlightenment and French Revolution. In doing so, Appiah shows how Western intellectuals and leaders, on both the left and right, have wildly exaggerated the power of difference - and neglected the power of one, one world, and one species. Challenging years of received wisdom, Cosmopolitanism is a resounding work of philosophy and global culture.

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About the author (2006)

Kwame Anthony Appiah was born in 1954 in London and raised in Ghana. After graduating with a degree in philosophy from Cambridge University, he taught at Yale, Duke, and Cornell universities. He is currently a professor of Philosophy and African American Studies at Harvard University. Appiah has written on such topics as language in Assertion and Conditional and For Truth in Semantics, and racial philosophy and identities in Color Conscious and In My Father's House. In addition to his scholarly publications, Appiah is the author of the popular Sir Patrick Scott Series of mysteries. In this series, which includes Avenging Angel and Another Death in Venice, Barrister Patrick Scott uses his intellectual skills to solve murders in a most British fashion.

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