Appiah Dialogue And Deliberation Summary

“Dialogue and Deliberation” by Josina Makua and Debian Marty and “Cosmopolitanism” by Kmawe Anthony Appiah, discuss how it is important to look at and listen to other people’s views and beliefs in order to be fully engaged. Makua and Marty believe that through constructive engagement, we can have a peaceful world but we are not there yet because we live in a world of arguments. People argue to win and to get their beliefs heard but they refuse to listen to other people’s beliefs. Similarly, Appiah discusses about how values shapes everyone and how through different cultures there are different values. Appiah states that in order to understand others we need to put ourselves in their shoes and think about their values.

In Dialogue and Deliberation,

One example that Appiah gives on opposing values is on abortion, he says that one person can believe that “abortions should be legal, if the mother chooses” (45), while another believes that “killing a fetus isn’t even bad as killing a grown-up cat.” Appiah goes on to write that through cosmopolitanism engagement we should “expect such disagreements.” Appiah then discusses thin concepts and thick concepts. Appiah believes that thin concepts involve terms like “good” or “bad,” while thick concepts are terms like “rudeness.” He goes on to explain how different cultures have different values. For example, in his culture the definition a good father and a good uncle are different from England’s definition of what a good father and a good mother is. In his culture, it is the uncle who takes care of a family and the father does not matter in that family a whole lot.However in England the father is the one who takes care of the family while the uncle does not matter in the family. Appiah continues on to explain how in different cultures there are different values and it is important to look at other people’s values to understand why they do the things they

Appiah, Makau and Marty believe that the Golden Rule is important in understanding another person’s point of view. Makua and Marty’s interpretation of the Golden Rule is that it “encourage us to hear others as we wish to be heard” (19). On the other hand, Appiah interprets it as “we should take other people’s interests seriously” (63), because what we would wish to be done us, sometimes might not be the same as what another person would wish to be done to them. We all have different beliefs and values, so we should understand other people’s values and put ourselves in their shoes then decide what they would want done to