Read all of Appiah’s “The Primacy of Practice.” Become an expert on your section and post to share with others in your group. For your section, your job is to understand and explain by looking up unfamiliar words, names, places etc. to be sure you’re clear about the terminology and references Appiah is using. Your post should include a short summary, a link to a resource to explain a reference that Appiah makes, and a focus on what he’s saying about making a difference by talking and listening. Here are examples from last semester.
What I am reading by Appiah is “Winners and Losers”, and when I was reading this the first thing that jumped out to me is abortion and gay marriage. Appiah wraps up his example of disputes on abortion and gay marriage from the “Fighting for the Good” section by explaining how they divide those who share a society and government because of their strong appeal to emotion. Appiah then goes back to the idea of a shared government to bring up international human rights and the treaties (which are weaker laws) that we expect every nation on the earth to follow such as the outlaw of slavery. From my initial interpretation, I saw those with the most power who imposed the treaties as the “winners” of the situation and those enslaved who would lose their means of survival as the “losers” in the situation. This example was extremely confusing but I believe was included to show how telling someone what is right and wrong and thinking you are right in the situation without fully understanding their individual situation will possibly evoke a negative response. Appiah states “We make treaties enshrining these rights. And then we want their government to enforce them”(Appiah, 81) without realizing that this would change the balance of power between men and women which is an extremely long process. This passage gets deeper as Appiah talks about our societies gender habits in our culture that continue to show the attitudes of the old ways of life where men and woman were not treated as equals that are still prevalent to this day. Overall I think the overall argument Appiah tries to make is that there is a right and wrong way to communicate, and by making treaties about what is right and wrong and expecting them to be followed no questions asked makes our nation the “Losers” in Cosmopolitanism and the “Winners” are those who understands that “people are not easily shifted by reason”(Appiah, 82)
