Experiential Knowledge And Cosmopolitanism: Ethics In A World Of Strangers

Both cultural identity and experiential knowledge are big factors into an individual’s personal beliefs and perception. Things that might seem alright in one culture’s view, might be completely taboo in another. One’s culture is actually all concerning perception and perception is quite a fickle factor. Every person’s perception of themselves is rarely quite a similar as another’s. Understanding how someone of a cultural cluster sees themselves, along with why they view themselves that way is vital. Then, one ought to understand the positive and negative aspects of however they see themselves.

Morals and values are embedded into us without us even realizing it. Daryl J. Bem, a social psychologist stated that the knowledge we gain from our …show more content…
It's what they have been a part of and what they need to be knowledgeable about. In reality, their culture is what they consider normal. Kwame Anthony Appiah, a philosopher, wrote in his book “Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers”: “People are disgusted by the idea of drinking orange juice that has a cockroach in it, even if they know the cockroach was rigorously cleaned of all bacteria by being autoclaved in advance. They are reluctant to eat chocolate shaped like dog feces, even if they know exactly what it is”. This gives a very good example of how someone from one culture could view themselves as us versus them. In a culture where cockroaches are regarded to as disgusting and always avoided the person wouldn’t drink the orange juice. However, in a culture where cockroaches are encountered commonly, the person may drink the orange juice. Each person would compare themselves to each other from an “us versus them” stand point. Because of their culture being a part their beliefs and often their back ground, it makes it difficult for each person to understand why the other person would do what they