Cosmopolitanism

Appiah introduces Sir Richard Francis Burton, a colorful Victorian who represents aspects of the second strand of cosmopolitanism. Burton, well traveled from childhood, was a gifted linguist who did translations for many languages, including Persian, Arabic, and Hindi. He also published a poem that he claimed was a translation of Persian poetry but was likely his own work presented as that of an alter ego. This poem described truth as “the shattered mirror strown / In myriad bits; while each believes / His little bit the whole to own” (5). Appiah describes Burton as someone curious about perspectives other than his own, a cosmopolitan characteristic. However, he did not show much acknowledgement of his responsibility to other human beings, the first strand of cosmopolitanism. Appiah notes that Burton seemed to believe knowing the whole truth wasn’t possible. Using the imagery from Burton’s purported translation, Appiah says Burton believed it was only possible to have “your little shard of the mirror” that does not reflect the whole (8).

Disagreements about truth claims often come up over religious practices, Appiah observes, so he uses the examples of making hajj, or going to Mecca, for devout Muslims and going to Mass for devout Catholics to assert that human beings do not have to agree about the exact meaning of an act to tolerate it.