Chapter 5 of Cosmopolitanism contains the real meat of Appiah’s argument. He’s
neither arguing in favor of a universal set of human values that we can all agree upon,
nor suggesting that we ought to trade in our local cultural identity for some
transnational world citizenship. People can live harmoniously without agreeing with
another on principles or even why they think harmony is worthwhile. The goal seems to
be to learn about each other, but not necessarily to change each other’s minds. What’s
the value he sees in cross cultural conversation? How does it facilitate harmony without
necessarily changing people’s views? What do you make of his claims? Why?
