Cosmopolitanism

Mr IK Shukla, from San Pedro, USA just sent me this mail. Thank you Shukla-saab!


Reinforcing your write-up on “Culture as Disability”, coincidentally, comes up another book that I just finished reading: Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, by Kwame Anthony Appiah (W.W.Norton, New York, 2006). Appiah is Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, USA.

Among the leading philosopher of the world today, he "challenges us to redraw these imaginary boundaries, reminding us of the powerful ties that connect people across regions, cultures, and nations..."

This brief quote from the blurb can only skimpily convey the richness of his scholarship and his passionate plea for a universalism that does not deny or denigrate localisms. The book is a delightful read. No abstruse jargon, no utopian daydreams. Idealistic, yes, but humanely realistic for sure. Cosmopolitanism is no cage or constraint, it is an open vista of far-ranging possibilities, enhancements and embrace of magnificent diversities that enrich us all.