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.
In the section of “The Primacy of Practice” called ‘Local Agreements,’ Appiah discusses the difference between agreeing with others on the answer to something and agreeing with them on the reasoning behind that answer. He begins by introducing the Asante, “[a] people living primarily in Ghana and the Ivory Coast” (50). He then explains that they consider incest as akyiwadeƐ, or taboo. This is how he introduces the idea that people can agree on a general topic, such as incest is wrong, but disagree on why it is wrong. He continues to relay this message by introducing several other groups who lived by this rule. Appiah says that, “in medieval Spain under the Moors and later in the Ottoman Near East, Jews and Christians of various denominations lived under Muslim rule,” with the Moors and the Ottomans both being groups of Muslims from various locations (50). A similar idea to before is shown here, people can coexist by accepting that others may have differing beliefs without trying to argue who is right or wrong. Appiah says that this “modus vivendi” or way of living that incorporates the idea of “agreeing to disagree.” Lastly, before mentioning this concept in the context of American disagreements and rule, he gives an example of Sephardic Jewish people living in Holland where two somewhat opposing groups could cohabitant due to their acceptance of opposing views. Overall, Appiah explains that people do have commonalities that allow them to exist together regardless of whether or not they have the same beliefs and values and, in addition, people can agree on a topic without having the same reasons for agreeing. It matters what is done, not why it is done.
