Ciò che conta per l'individuo. Il Cosmopolitismo radicato do Antony Appiah

Abstract: On the basis of the Italian publication of Anthony Appiah’s political essays, the paper discusses Appiah’s view of cosmopolitanism. By placing it in relation to other positions popular in contemporary discussion (e.g. M. Nussbaum, T. Pogge, J. Rawls, R. Dworkin), its specificity is highlighted. This corresponds to the option of thinking cosmopolitism from the point of view of the primary boundaries that are concretely important for the individual’s life and existence. Among these boundaries are the ties to community, family, loved ones and one’s own country. The recognition of this level of connection to the actual conditions of the individual’s life is the first ingredient of a political view whose conceptual premises are epistemological fallibilism, an attitude of listening and dialogue, and cultural pluralism. These are also the components of Appiah’s liberalism, which is the primary value of his cosmopolitanism. For him, this is a remedy against moral solipsism and the abstract claim to love of humanity, which at best is in danger of becoming an empty idea and at worst a tyrannical pretension. From this background emerges a wide range of questions concerning, among other things, political organisation, civil rights, the educational system, and cultural heritage, the discussion of which, through a mixture of historical sensibility and a systematic method of thought, makes Appiah one of the most interesting philosophical voices of our time.