Kwame Anthony Appiah
Encyclopedia
Kwame Anthony Appiah is a Ghana
ian-British
-American
philosopher, cultural theorist
, and novelist whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Kwame Anthony Appiah grew up in Ghana and earned a Ph.D. at Cambridge University. He is currently the Laurance S. Rockefeller
University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University
.
to Enid Margaret Appiah
, an art historian and writer, and Joe Emmanuel Appiah
, a lawyer, diplomat, and politician from the Asante region, once part of the British Gold Coast Colony but now part of Ghana. He was raised in Kumasi, Ghana, and educated at Bryanston School
and Clare College, Cambridge
, where he earned his BA (First Class) and Ph.D.
in philosophy
. Appiah has three sisters: Isobel, Adwoa and Abena. As a child, he also spent a good deal of time in England, staying with his grandmother Isobel, the Honourable Lady Cripps, widow of the English statesman the Right Honourable Sir Stafford Cripps. His family has a long political tradition: his maternal grandfather Sir Stafford
was Labour
Chancellor of the Exchequer
(1947–1950) under Clement Attlee
. His own father, Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor
, was the Labour Leader of the House of Lords
(1929–1931) under Ramsay MacDonald
; Parmoor had been a Conservative
MP before defecting to Labour. Through Professor Appiah's father, a Nana
of the Ashanti people, he is also a direct descendant of Osei Tutu, the warrior emperor of pre-colonial Ghana whose reigning successor, the Asantehene
, is a distant relative of the Appiah family.
, Drexel
, Cornell
, Yale
, Harvard
, and Princeton Universities from 1981 to 1986. He is currently Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton (with a cross-appointment at the University Center for Human Values) and was serving as the Bacon-Kilkenny Professor of Law at Fordham University in the fall of 2008. Appiah also served on the board of PEN American Center
and was on a panel of judges for the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award
. He has taught at Yale, Cornell, Duke, and Harvard universities and lectured at many other institutions in the US, Germany, Ghana and South Africa, and Paris. He lives with his partner, Henry Finder, in an apartment in Chelsea, Manhattan
and a home in Pennington, New Jersey
.
His Cambridge dissertation explored the foundations of probabilistic semantics. In 1992, Appiah published In My Father's House, which won the Herskovitz Prize
for African Studies in English
. Among his later books are Colour Conscious (with Amy Gutmann), The Ethics of Identity (2005), and Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006). He has been a close collaborator with Henry Louis Gates Jr., together with whom he is an editor for The New Yorker Magazine. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1995.
In 2008, Appiah published Experiments in Ethics
, in which he reviews the relevance of empirical research to ethical theory.
In 2008, Appiah was recognized for his contributions to racial, ethnic, and religious relations when Brandeis University awarded him the first Joseph B. and Toby Glitter Prize.
Until the fall of 2009, he served as a trustee of Ashesi University College in Accra, Ghana. Here, Appiah conducts his Socratic interrogations in the language and style of analytical philosophy.
Appiah was the 2009 finalist in the arts and humanities for the Eugene R. Gannon Award for the Continued Pursuit of Human Advancement.
His first novel, Avenging Angel, set at the University of Cambridge
, involved a murder among the Cambridge Apostles
, Sir Patrick Scott is the detective in the novel . His second and third novels are Nobody Likes Letitia and Another Death in Venice.
The selections "Making Conversation" and "The Primacy of Practice" are the introduction in Cosmopolitanism.
In 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers.
are notable for their duality: on the one hand he seems to appreciate the immediate action these organizations provide while on the other hand he points out the long-term futility of such intervention. His focus is, instead, on the long-term political and economic development of nations according to the Western capitalist/ democratic model, an approach that relies on continued growth in the “marketplace” that is the capital-driven modern world.
In "Under Western Eyes, Revisited," Chandra Talpade Mohanty refers to this as the colonization of corporate globalization, something that is Eurocentric and which presumes that capitalism is or should be universally valued as a way of life and modernity.
However, when capitalism is introduced and it does not "take off" as in the Western world, the livelihood of the peoples involved is at stake. Thus, the ethical questions involved are certainly complex, yet the general impression in Appiah’s "Kindness to Strangers" is one which implies that it is not up to "us" to save the poor and starving, but up to their own governments. Nation-states must assume responsibility for their citizens, and a cosmopolitan’s role is to appeal to "our own" government to ensure that these nation-states respect, provide for, and protect their citizens.
If they will not, "we" are obliged to change their minds; if they cannot, "we" are obliged to provide assistance, but only our "fair share," that is, not at the expense of our own comfort, or the comfort of those "nearest and dearest" to us.
Appiah's early philosophical work dealt with probabilistic semantics and theories of meaning, but his more recent books have tackled philosophical problems of race and racism
, identity, and moral theory. His current work tackles three major areas: 1. the philosophical foundations of liberalism; 2. the questioning of methods in arriving at knowledge about values; and 3. the connections between theory and practice in moral life. Which all of these concepts can also be found in his book Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.
philosophical tradition, which stretches from German philosophers such as Hegel through W. E. B. Du Bois and others. In his article “Education for Global Citizenship,” Appiah outlines his conception of cosmopolitanism. He therein defines cosmopolitanism as “universality
plus difference”. Building from this definition, he asserts that the first takes precedence over the latter, that is: different cultures are respected “not because cultures matter in themselves, but because people matter, and culture matters to people.” But Appiah first defined it as its problems but ultimately determines that practicing a citizenship of the world and conversation is not only helpful in a post - 9/11 world. Therefore, according to Appiah’s take on this ideology, cultural differences are to be respected in so far as they are not harmful to people and in no way conflict with our universal concern for every human’s life and well-being. In his book, "Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers," Appiah introduces two ideas that "intertwine in the notion of cosmopolitanism" (Emerging, 59). The first is the idea that we have obligations to others that are bigger than just sharing citizenship. The second idea is that we should never take for granted the value of life and become informed of the practices and beliefs of others. Kwame Appiah frequents university campuses to enlighten today's youth by sharing his perspectives. One request he makes is, “See one movie with subtitles a month.”
. In his essay "Europe Upside Down: Fallacies of the New Afrocentrism," Appiah argues that current Afrocentricism is striking for "how thoroughly at home it is in the frameworks of nineteenth century European thought," particularly as a mirror image to Eurocentric constructions of race and a preoccupation with the ancient world. Appiah also finds an irony in the conception that if the source of the West lies in ancient Egypt
via Greece
, then "its legacy of ethnocentrism is presumably one of our moral liabilities." Appiah's critique of contemporary Afrocentrism has been strongly criticized by some of its leading proponents, such as Temple University
African American Studies scholar and activist Molefi Asante, who has characterized Appiah's work as "anti-African."
Appiah appeared alongside a number of contemporary philosophers—including Cornel West
, Avital Ronell
, Peter Singer
, Martha Nussbaum
, Michael Hardt
, Slavoj Žižek
, and Judith Butler
—in Astra Taylor's
2008 film Examined Life
where he discussed his views on cosmopolitanism.
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
ian-British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
philosopher, cultural theorist
Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
, and novelist whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Kwame Anthony Appiah grew up in Ghana and earned a Ph.D. at Cambridge University. He is currently the Laurance S. Rockefeller
Laurance Rockefeller
Laurance Spelman Rockefeller was a venture capitalist, financier, philanthropist, a major conservationist and a prominent third-generation member of the Rockefeller family. He was the fourth child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and brother to John D...
University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
.
Biography
Appiah was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Enid Margaret Appiah
Peggy Cripps
Enid Margaret "Peggy" Appiah, MBE was a British children's author, philanthropist and socialite. She was the daughter of the Right Honourable Sir Stafford Cripps and Isobel, the Honourable Lady Cripps, and the wife of Ghanaian lawyer and political activist Nana Joe Appiah.-Early life:Enid...
, an art historian and writer, and Joe Emmanuel Appiah
Joe Appiah
Nana Joseph Emmanuel "Joe" Appiah, MP was a Ghanaian lawyer, politician and statesman. He was born in Kumasi to Nana James Appiah and Nana Adwoa Akyaa, members of the Ashanti imperial aristocracy...
, a lawyer, diplomat, and politician from the Asante region, once part of the British Gold Coast Colony but now part of Ghana. He was raised in Kumasi, Ghana, and educated at Bryanston School
Bryanston School
Bryanston School is a co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in Blandford, north Dorset, England, near the village of Bryanston. It was founded in 1928...
and Clare College, Cambridge
Clare College, Cambridge
Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on "the Backs"...
, where he earned his BA (First Class) and Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
. Appiah has three sisters: Isobel, Adwoa and Abena. As a child, he also spent a good deal of time in England, staying with his grandmother Isobel, the Honourable Lady Cripps, widow of the English statesman the Right Honourable Sir Stafford Cripps. His family has a long political tradition: his maternal grandfather Sir Stafford
Stafford Cripps
Sir Richard Stafford Cripps was a British Labour politician of the first half of the 20th century. During World War II he served in a number of positions in the wartime coalition, including Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Minister of Aircraft Production...
was Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
(1947–1950) under Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
. His own father, Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor
Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor
Charles Alfred Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor KCVO, PC, QC was a British politician who crossed the floor from the Conservative to the Labour Party and was a strong supporter of the League of Nations and of Church of England causes....
, was the Labour Leader of the House of Lords
Leader of the House of Lords
The Leader of the House of Lords is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Lords. The role is always held in combination with a formal Cabinet position, usually one of the sinecure offices of Lord President of the Council,...
(1929–1931) under Ramsay MacDonald
Ramsay MacDonald
James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....
; Parmoor had been a Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MP before defecting to Labour. Through Professor Appiah's father, a Nana
Nana (title)
Nana is a Ghanaian title.Amongst the Akan clans of Ghana, the word Nana generally denotes social eminence derived from either nobility or advanced age. It is most often used as a pre-nominal honorific by individuals who are entitled to it due to the former of the two ....
of the Ashanti people, he is also a direct descendant of Osei Tutu, the warrior emperor of pre-colonial Ghana whose reigning successor, the Asantehene
Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II
King Otumfuo Osei Tutu, is the 16th Asantehene, King of the Ashanti. He ascended the Golden Stool on 26 April 1999. By name, he is in direct succession to the founder of the Empire of Ashanti, Otumfuo Osei Tutu I.-Family:...
, is a distant relative of the Appiah family.
Career
Appiah has taught philosophy and African-American studies at the University of GhanaUniversity of Ghana
The University of Ghana is the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian universities and tertiary institutions. It is one of the best universities in Africa and by far the most prestigious in West Africa...
, Drexel
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with the main campus located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a noted financier and philanthropist. Drexel offers 70 full-time undergraduate programs and accelerated degrees...
, Cornell
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and Princeton Universities from 1981 to 1986. He is currently Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton (with a cross-appointment at the University Center for Human Values) and was serving as the Bacon-Kilkenny Professor of Law at Fordham University in the fall of 2008. Appiah also served on the board of PEN American Center
PEN American Center
PEN American Center , founded in 1922 and based in New York City, works to advance literature, to defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship. The Center has a membership of 3,300 writers, editors, and translators...
and was on a panel of judges for the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award
PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award
The PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award was presented each spring to a U.S. resident who has fought courageously, despite adversity, to safeguard the First Amendment right to freedom of expression as it applies to the written word. Sponsored by PEN American Center and Newman's Own, a cash prize...
. He has taught at Yale, Cornell, Duke, and Harvard universities and lectured at many other institutions in the US, Germany, Ghana and South Africa, and Paris. He lives with his partner, Henry Finder, in an apartment in Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
and a home in Pennington, New Jersey
Pennington, New Jersey
Pennington is a Borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 2,585.Pennington was established as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on January 31, 1890, from portions of Hopewell Township, based on the results of...
.
His Cambridge dissertation explored the foundations of probabilistic semantics. In 1992, Appiah published In My Father's House, which won the Herskovitz Prize
Herskovitz Prize
The Herskovits Prize is an annual award given by the African Studies Association to the best scholarly work on Africa published in English in the previous year and distributed in the United States....
for African Studies in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. Among his later books are Colour Conscious (with Amy Gutmann), The Ethics of Identity (2005), and Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006). He has been a close collaborator with Henry Louis Gates Jr., together with whom he is an editor for The New Yorker Magazine. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1995.
In 2008, Appiah published Experiments in Ethics
Experiments in Ethics
Experiments in Ethics is a 2008 book by the Princeton philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah.Many philosophers have been sceptical about the relevance of empirical moral psychology to ethics. But Appiah points out that philosophy has almost always had an experimental side...
, in which he reviews the relevance of empirical research to ethical theory.
In 2008, Appiah was recognized for his contributions to racial, ethnic, and religious relations when Brandeis University awarded him the first Joseph B. and Toby Glitter Prize.
Until the fall of 2009, he served as a trustee of Ashesi University College in Accra, Ghana. Here, Appiah conducts his Socratic interrogations in the language and style of analytical philosophy.
Appiah was the 2009 finalist in the arts and humanities for the Eugene R. Gannon Award for the Continued Pursuit of Human Advancement.
His first novel, Avenging Angel, set at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, involved a murder among the Cambridge Apostles
Cambridge Apostles
The Cambridge Apostles, also known as the Cambridge Conversazione Society, is an intellectual secret society at the University of Cambridge founded in 1820 by George Tomlinson, a Cambridge student who went on to become the first Bishop of Gibraltar....
, Sir Patrick Scott is the detective in the novel . His second and third novels are Nobody Likes Letitia and Another Death in Venice.
The selections "Making Conversation" and "The Primacy of Practice" are the introduction in Cosmopolitanism.
In 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers.
Ideas
Appiah argues that the formative denotation of culture is ultimately preceded by the efficacy of intellectual interchange. From this position, his views on the efficacy of organizations such as UNICEF and OxfamOxfam
Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world. In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives...
are notable for their duality: on the one hand he seems to appreciate the immediate action these organizations provide while on the other hand he points out the long-term futility of such intervention. His focus is, instead, on the long-term political and economic development of nations according to the Western capitalist/ democratic model, an approach that relies on continued growth in the “marketplace” that is the capital-driven modern world.
In "Under Western Eyes, Revisited," Chandra Talpade Mohanty refers to this as the colonization of corporate globalization, something that is Eurocentric and which presumes that capitalism is or should be universally valued as a way of life and modernity.
However, when capitalism is introduced and it does not "take off" as in the Western world, the livelihood of the peoples involved is at stake. Thus, the ethical questions involved are certainly complex, yet the general impression in Appiah’s "Kindness to Strangers" is one which implies that it is not up to "us" to save the poor and starving, but up to their own governments. Nation-states must assume responsibility for their citizens, and a cosmopolitan’s role is to appeal to "our own" government to ensure that these nation-states respect, provide for, and protect their citizens.
If they will not, "we" are obliged to change their minds; if they cannot, "we" are obliged to provide assistance, but only our "fair share," that is, not at the expense of our own comfort, or the comfort of those "nearest and dearest" to us.
Appiah's early philosophical work dealt with probabilistic semantics and theories of meaning, but his more recent books have tackled philosophical problems of race and racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, identity, and moral theory. His current work tackles three major areas: 1. the philosophical foundations of liberalism; 2. the questioning of methods in arriving at knowledge about values; and 3. the connections between theory and practice in moral life. Which all of these concepts can also be found in his book Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.
Cosmopolitanism
Appiah has been influenced by the cosmopolitanistCosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism...
philosophical tradition, which stretches from German philosophers such as Hegel through W. E. B. Du Bois and others. In his article “Education for Global Citizenship,” Appiah outlines his conception of cosmopolitanism. He therein defines cosmopolitanism as “universality
Universality
Universality may refer to:* Universality in physical science * Universality * Universality , meaning present in all places and all times* Universality...
plus difference”. Building from this definition, he asserts that the first takes precedence over the latter, that is: different cultures are respected “not because cultures matter in themselves, but because people matter, and culture matters to people.” But Appiah first defined it as its problems but ultimately determines that practicing a citizenship of the world and conversation is not only helpful in a post - 9/11 world. Therefore, according to Appiah’s take on this ideology, cultural differences are to be respected in so far as they are not harmful to people and in no way conflict with our universal concern for every human’s life and well-being. In his book, "Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers," Appiah introduces two ideas that "intertwine in the notion of cosmopolitanism" (Emerging, 59). The first is the idea that we have obligations to others that are bigger than just sharing citizenship. The second idea is that we should never take for granted the value of life and become informed of the practices and beliefs of others. Kwame Appiah frequents university campuses to enlighten today's youth by sharing his perspectives. One request he makes is, “See one movie with subtitles a month.”
Criticism of Afrocentric world view
Appiah has been a critic of contemporary theories of AfrocentrismAfrocentrism
Afrocentrism is cultural ideology mostly limited to the United States, dedicated to the history of Black people a response to global racist attitudes about African people and their historical contributions by revisiting this history with an African cultural and ideological center...
. In his essay "Europe Upside Down: Fallacies of the New Afrocentrism," Appiah argues that current Afrocentricism is striking for "how thoroughly at home it is in the frameworks of nineteenth century European thought," particularly as a mirror image to Eurocentric constructions of race and a preoccupation with the ancient world. Appiah also finds an irony in the conception that if the source of the West lies in ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
via Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, then "its legacy of ethnocentrism is presumably one of our moral liabilities." Appiah's critique of contemporary Afrocentrism has been strongly criticized by some of its leading proponents, such as Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
African American Studies scholar and activist Molefi Asante, who has characterized Appiah's work as "anti-African."
Other media appearances
In 2007, Appiah was a contributing scholar in the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Prince Among Slaves produced by Unity Productions Foundation.Appiah appeared alongside a number of contemporary philosophers—including Cornel West
Cornel West
Cornel Ronald West is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, civil rights activist and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America....
, Avital Ronell
Avital Ronell
Avital Ronell is a Professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee and a Professor of German, comparative literature, and English at New York University, where she co-directs the Research in Trauma and Violence project...
, Peter Singer
Peter Singer
Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher who is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne...
, Martha Nussbaum
Martha Nussbaum
Martha Nussbaum , is an American philosopher with a particular interest in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, political philosophy and ethics....
, Michael Hardt
Michael Hardt
Michael Hardt is an American literary theorist and political philosopher perhaps best known for Empire, written with Antonio Negri and published in 2000...
, Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher, critical theorist working in the traditions of Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He has made contributions to political theory, film theory, and theoretical psychoanalysis....
, and Judith Butler
Judith Butler
Judith Butler is an American post-structuralist philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of feminism, queer theory, political philosophy, and ethics. She is a professor in the Rhetoric and Comparative Literature departments at the University of California, Berkeley.Butler received her Ph.D...
—in Astra Taylor's
Astra Taylor
Astra Taylor is a Canadian-American documentary filmmaker and writer, best known for her 2005 film, Zizek!, about the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, and for her 2008 film, Examined Life....
2008 film Examined Life
Examined Life
Examined Life is a 2008 documentary film directed by Astra Taylor. The film features eight influential contemporary philosophers walking around New York and other metropolises and discussing the practical application of their ideas in modern culture....
where he discussed his views on cosmopolitanism.
See also
- African philosophyAfrican philosophyAfrican philosophy is used in different ways by different philosophers. Although African philosophers spend their time doing work in many different areas, such as metaphysics, epistemology, moral philosophy, and political philosophy, a great deal of the literature is taken up with a debate...
- Africana philosophyAfricana philosophyAfricana philosophy is an emerging term in the field of philosophy representing the works of professional philosophers who are of African descent as well as others whose works deal with the subject matter of the African diaspora.-What is Africana philosophy?:...
- List of African American philosophers
Books
- The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010
- Mi cosmopolitismo, Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores S.A, 2008, ISBN 9788496859371 (En coedición con el Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona)
- Experiments in Ethics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008. (Trad. esp.: Experimentos de ética, Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores S.A, 2010, ISBN 9788492946112)
- Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. (Trad. esp.: Cosmopolitismo. La ética en un mundo de extraños, Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores S.A, 2007, ISBN 9788496859081)
- The Ethics of Identity Princeton University PressPrinceton University Press-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
, 2005. (Trad. esp.: La ética de la identidad, Buenos Aires/Madrid, Katz editores S.A, 2007, ISBN 9788493543242) - Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy. New York: Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 2003. - Africana: The Concise Desk Reference. edited with H.L. Gates Jr. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2003.
- Kosmopolitische Patriotismus. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2002.
- Bu Me Bé: The Proverbs of the Akan. With Peggy Appiah, and with the assistance of Ivor Agyeman-Duah. Accra: The Center for Intellectual Renewal, 2002.
- Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race. With Amy Gutman, introduction by David Wilkins. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.
- In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. London: Methuen, 1992; New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
- Necessary Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy. New York: Prentice-Hall/Calmann & King, 1989.
- For Truth in Semantics. Oxford: Blackwell's, 1986.
- Assertion and Conditionals. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, 1985.
Novels
- Another Death in Venice: A Sir Patrick Scott Investigation. London: Constable, 1995.
- Nobody Likes Letitia. London: Constable, 1994.
- Avenging AngelAvenging AngelAvenging Angel may refer to:* Avenging Angel , a 1985 film starring Betsy Russell* The Avenging Angel, a 1995 TV movie directed by Craig R...
. London: Constable, 1990; New York: St. Martin's PressSt. Martin's PressSt. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
, 1991.
Edited volumes
- Early African-American Classics. (edited with an introduction) New York: Bantam, 1990.
- Langston Hughes: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Amistad Literary Series. New York: Amistad Press, 1993.
- Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Amistad Literary Series. New York: Amistad Press, 1993.
- Toni Morrison: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Amistad Literary Series. New York: Amistad Press, 1993.
- Gloria Naylor: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Amistad Literary Series. New York: Amistad Press, 1993.
- Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Amistad Literary Series. New York: Amistad Press, 1993.
- Richard Wright: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Amistad Literary Series. New York: Amistad Press, 1993.
- Chinua Achebe: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Amistad Literary Series. New York: Amistad Press, 1993.
- Ann Petry: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Amistad Literary Series. New York: Amistad Press, 1994.
- Frederick Douglass: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Amistad Literary Series. New York: Amistad Press, 1994.
- Identities. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995.
- A Dictionary of Global Culture. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. New York: Knopf, 1996.
- Encarta Africana. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Redmond, Washington: MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, 1999. - Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. New York: Basic-Civitas, 1999.
- Encarta Africana 2000. Ed. with Henry Louis Gates Jr. Redmond, Washington: Microsoft, 1999.
- The Poetry of our World: An International Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. Ed. by Jeffrey Paine with Kwame Anthony Appiah, Sven Birkerts, Joseph Brodsky, Carolyn Forché, and Helen Vendler (Edited and introduced African section.) New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2000.
- Buying Freedom: The Ethics and Economics of Slave Redemption Ed. by Martin BunzlMartin BunzlMartin Bunzl is the director of the at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. He edited, with Anthony Appiah, Buying Freedom: The Ethics and Economics of Slave Redemption. His other books include Real History , and The Context of Explanation .Martin Bunzl received his PhD from the University of...
and Kwame Anthony Appiah, with an introduction by Kevin BalesKevin BalesKevin Bales is an expert on modern slavery and President of Free the Slaves. Free the Slaves is the US sister organization of Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest human rights organization. He is currently based in Washington, D.C....
. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.
Selected essays
- “Understanding reparations: a preliminary reflection”. Forthcoming in Cahiers d’ Etudes Africaine.
- “Stereotypes and the Shaping of Identity.” In Prejudicial Appearances: The Logic of American Anti-Discrimination Law by Robert C. Post, with K. Anthony Appiah, Judith Butler, Thomas C. Grey, and Reva B. Siegel. Durham: Duke University PressDuke University PressDuke University Press is an academic publisher of books and journals, and a unit of Duke University. It publishes approximately 120 books annually and more than 40 journals, as well as offering five electronic collections...
, 2001. p. 55-71. - “Grounding Human Rights.” In Human Rights As Politics and Idolatry by Michael Ignatieff with commentaries by K. Anthony Appiah, David Hollinger, Thomas W. Laqueur and Diane F. Orentlicher, edited by Amy Gutmann. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. p. 101-116.
- “Aufklärung und Dialog der Kulturen,” In Zukunftsstreit, ed. by Wilhelm Krull. Weilerswist: Velbrück Wissenschaft, 2000. p. 305-328.
- “Yambo Ouolouguem and the Meaning of Postcoloniality.” In Yambo Ouologuem: Postcolonial Writer, Islamic Militant. Christopher WiseChristopher WiseChristopher Wise is a scholar and professor of English and Comparative Literature at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington...
(ed.) Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1999. p. 55-63. - “Race, Pluralism and Afrocentricity” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 19 (Spring 1998) p. 116-118.
- “Identity: Political not Cultural.” In Field Work: Sites in Literary and Cultural Studies. Marjorie Garber, Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Paul B. Franklin (eds.) New York: Routledge, 1997. p. 34-40.
- “Is the 'Post-' in 'Postcolonial' the 'Post-' in 'Postmodern'?”. In Dangerous Liaisons. Anne McClintock, Aamir Mufti, Ella Shohat (eds. and introd.) MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. p. 420-444.
- “Race, Culture, Identity: Misunderstood Connections.” The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, No.17. Salt Lake City: University of Utah PressUniversity of Utah PressThe University of Utah Press is the independent publishing branch of the University of Utah and is a division of the J. Willard Marriott Library. Founded in 1949 by A. Ray Olpin, it is also the oldest university press in Utah...
, 1996. p. 51-136. - “Philosophy and Necessary Questions.” in Readings in African Philosophy: An Akan Collection. Safro Kwame (ed.) Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1995. p. 1-22.
- “Identity, Authenticity, Survival: Multicultural Societies and Social Reproduction.” In Multiculturalism: Examining "The Politics of Recognition." An essay by Charles Taylor, with commentary by Amy Gutmann (editor), K. Anthony Appiah, Jürgen HabermasJürgen HabermasJürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...
, Steven C. Rockefeller, Michael Walzer, Susan Wolf. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994. p. 149-164. - “The Impact of African Studies on Philosophy.” With V. Y. Mudimbe. In The Impact of African Studies on the Disciplines. Edited by Robert Bates, V. Y. Mudimbe and Jean O'Barr. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1993. p. 113-138.
- “African-American Philosophy?” Philosophical Forum. Vol. XXIV, Nos. 1-3 (Fall-Spring 1992-93) p. 1-24. Reprinted in African-American Philosophical Perspectives and Philosophical Traditions, p. 11-34. John Pittman (ed.) New York: Routledge, 1997.
- “African Identities.” In Constructions identitaires: questionnements théoriques et études de cas. Jean-Loup Amselle, Anthony Appiah, Shaka Bagayogo, Jean-Pierre Chrétien, Jocelyne Dakhlia, Ernest Gellner, Richard LaRue, Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, Jerzy Topolski, Fernande Saint-Martin sous la direction de Bogumil Jewsiewicki et Jocelyn Létourneau Actes du Célat No. 6, Mai 1992. CÉLAT, Université Laval, 1992.
- “Introductory Essay.” Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Everyman, 1992.
- “Inventing an African Practice in Philosophy: Epistemological Issues.” In The Surreptitious Speech: Présence Africaine and the Politics of Otherness 1947-1987. V.Y. Mudimbe (ed.) (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1992) pp. 227–237.
- “But would that still be me? Notes on gender, `race,' ethnicity as sources of identity.” The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. LXXXVII, No. 10 (October 1990) p. 493-499.
- “Alexander Crummell and the Invention of Africa.” The Massachusetts Review, Vol. XXXI, No. 3 (Autumn, 1990) p. 385-406.
- “Tolerable Falsehoods: Agency and the Interests of Theory.” In Consequences of Theory. Barbara Johnson & Jonathan Arac (eds.) Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991 p. 63-90.
- “Racisms.” In Anatomy of Racism. David Goldberg (ed.) Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press, 1990. p. 3-17.
- “Race.” In Critical Terms for Literary Study. Frank LentricchiaFrank LentricchiaFrank Lentricchia is an American literary critic, novelist, and film teacher. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. from Duke University in 1966 and 1963 respectively after receiving a B.A. from Utica College in 1962...
& Tom McLaughlin (eds.) Chicago University Press, 1989. p. 274-287. - “Out of Africa: Topologies of Nativism.” The Yale Journal of Criticism, 2.1, (1988) p. 153-178.
- “A Long Way From Home: Richard Wright in the Gold Coast.” In Richard Wright. Harold Bloom (ed.) New York: Chelsea House, Modern Critical Views, 1987. p. 173-190.
- “Racism and Moral Pollution.” Philosophical Forum, Vol. XVIII, Nos. 2-3 (Winter-Spring, 1986-1987. p. 185-202. *“The Uncompleted Argument: Du Bois and the Illusion of Race.” Critical Inquiry, 12, (Autumn 1985).
- “Are We Ethnic? The Theory and Practice of American Pluralism.” Black American Literature Forum, 20 (Spring-Summer 1986) p. 209-224.
- "Deconstruction and the Philosophy of Language." Diacritics, Spring 1986, p. 49-64
- "The Importance of Triviality." Philosophical Review, 95 (April 1986) p. 209-231.
- "Verificationism and the Manifestations of Meaning." Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, 59 (1985) p. 17-31.
- "Soyinka and the Philosophy of Culture." In Philosophy in Africa: Trends and Perspectives. P.O. Bodunrin (ed.) Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press, 1985. p. 250-263.
- "Generalizing the Probabilistic Semantics of Conditionals." Journal of Philosophical Logic, 13 (1985) p. 351-372.
- "An Argument Against Anti-realist Semantics." Mind 93, (October 1984) p. 559-565.
- "On Structuralism and African Fiction: An analytic critique." Black American Literature Forum, 15 (Winter 1981). In Black Literature and Literary Theory Henry Louis Gates Jr. (ed.) London: Methuen, 1984. p. 127-150.
Further reading
- Philip GambonePhilip GambonePhilip Gambone is an American writer.Gambone was born in Wakefield, Massachusetts in 1948 and earned a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.A. from the Episcopal Divinity School...
, "Kwame Anthony Appiah" in Travels in a Gay Nation: Portraits of LGBTQ Americans (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 2010), ISBN 978-029923684-7
External links
- Appiah's personal page
- Appiah's Princeton home page
- "The Ethics of Identity" Radio interview
- "What is Race?" Radio interview
- "Experimental Philosophy" Radio interview
- Video conversation/debate with the philosopher Joshua KnobeJoshua KnobeJoshua Knobe is an experimental philosopher currently employed as an assistant professor in the Program in Cognitive Science and Department of Philosophy at Yale University. He was previously Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Knobe received his...
on Bloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tvBloggingheads.tv is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast online to viewers... - 'Experiments in Ethics' on Philosophy Bites Podcast interview
- 'Cosmopolitanism' on Philosophy Bites Podcast interview
- Public Radio interview with Jenny Attiyeh (Thoughtcast)
- "Sidling Up to Difference" On Being (March 24, 2011) - Interview with Krista Tippett, 2011