Kwame Anthony Appiah facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kwame Anthony Appiah
FRSL
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Appiah at Fronteiras do Pensamento Porto Alegre 2013
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| Born | 8 May 1954 London, England
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| Alma mater | Clare College, Cambridge |
| Spouse(s) | Henry Finder |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy African philosophy |
| School | Cosmopolitanism |
| Thesis | Conditions for Conditionals (1981) |
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Main interests
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Probabilistic semantics, political theory, moral theory, intellectual history, race and identity theory |
Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah FRSL (/ˈæpiɑː/ ap-EE-ah; born 8 May 1954) is an English-American philosopher and writer. He writes about big ideas like fairness (ethics), how societies should be run (political philosophy), and how language and minds work. He also studies the history of African ideas.
Appiah is a Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University (NYU). He joined NYU in 2014. Before that, he was a professor at Princeton University. In January 2022, Appiah was chosen as the President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Contents
Early Life and School
Appiah was born in London, England. His mother, Peggy Cripps Appiah, was an English writer and art historian. His father, Joe Appiah, was a lawyer, diplomat, and politician from Ashanti Region, Ghana.
For two years (1970–1972), Joe Appiah led a new political party in Ghana. He was also the president of the Ghana Bar Association. From 1977 to 1978, he represented Ghana at the United Nations.
Kwame Anthony Appiah grew up in Kumasi, Ghana. He went to Bryanston School and Clare College, Cambridge in England. There, he earned his first degree and his PhD in philosophy. He has three sisters: Isobel, Adwoa, and Abena. As a child, he often visited England and stayed with his grandmother, Dame Isobel Cripps.
Personal Life
Kwame Anthony Appiah lives with his husband, Henry Finder. Henry is an editorial director for The New Yorker magazine. They have an apartment in Manhattan and a home in Pennington, New Jersey.
Appiah became a citizen of the United States in 1997. His nephew is the actor Adetomiwa Edun.
Career and Books
From 1981 to 1988, Appiah taught philosophy and African-American studies. He taught at the University of Ghana, Cornell University, Yale University, Harvard University, and Princeton University. Until 2014, he was a philosophy professor at Princeton.
Appiah has also been on the board of PEN American Center. He was a judge for the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award. He has given talks at many places in the US, Germany, Ghana, South Africa, and Paris. Since 2014, he has been a professor of philosophy and law at NYU.
His PhD paper at Cambridge looked at the basics of how we understand meaning using probability. In 1992, Appiah published In My Father's House. This book won the Herskovitz Prize for African Studies.
Later, he wrote other important books. These include Colour Conscious (with Amy Gutmann), The Ethics of Identity (2005), and Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006). He also worked closely with Henry Louis Gates Jr.. Together, they edited Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience.
In 2008, Appiah published Experiments in Ethics. In this book, he explored how scientific research can help us understand ethical ideas. That same year, he received the first Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize. This award recognized his work on understanding different races, cultures, and religions.
Besides his academic books, Appiah has also written novels. His first novel, Avenging Angel, was a murder mystery set at the University of Cambridge. He also wrote Nobody Likes Letitia and Another Death in Venice.
Appiah has received many awards and honors. In 2010, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the top global thinkers. On February 13, 2012, he received the National Humanities Medal at the White House.
Appiah leads the jury for the Berggruen Prize. He also serves on the Berggruen Institute's Philosophy & Culture Center's Academic Board. In January 2022, he was elected President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Key Ideas
Appiah's early work focused on how language gets its meaning. But his more recent books explore big questions about race, racism, and what makes up our identity. He also writes about moral ideas.
His current work looks at three main areas:
- The basic ideas behind liberalism (a political philosophy about freedom and equality).
- How we figure out what is valuable or good.
- How our ideas about right and wrong connect to how we live our lives.
These ideas are also found in his book Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.
Cosmopolitanism Explained
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Appiah has been inspired by the idea of cosmopolitanism. This idea comes from ancient Greek thinkers like Diogenes and African American thinkers like W. E. B. Du Bois.
In his article "Education for Global Citizenship," Appiah explains his view of cosmopolitanism. He says it means "universality plus difference." This means we should care about all people everywhere (universality). But we should also respect different cultures (difference).
He believes that caring for people comes first. Different cultures are important because they matter to people. So, we should respect cultural differences as long as they don't harm anyone. They should also not go against our basic care for every human's life and well-being.
In his book Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006), Appiah talks about two main ideas of cosmopolitanism:
- We have duties to people beyond just those who share our country.
- We should always value life and learn about the beliefs and practices of others.
Kwame Appiah often visits universities to talk to students. He encourages them to "See one movie with subtitles a month." This helps them learn about other cultures.
In his 2018 book, Lies that Bind, Appiah explores how we create ideas of identity. He looks at identities based on religion, race, country, and social class.
Awards and Honors
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for In My Father's House, April 1993.
- Herskovits Award for In My Father's House, December 1993.
- Annual Book Award from the North American Society for Social Philosophy for Color Conscious, May 1997.
- Ralph J. Bunche Award from the American Political Science Association for Color Conscious, July 1997.
- Elected member of the American Philosophical Society.
- Editors' Choice, New York Times Book Review, for The Ethics of Identity, June 2005.
- Amazon.com Best Books of 2005 for The Ethics of Identity, December 2005.
- Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations for Cosmopolitanism, May 2007.
- A Times Literary Supplement's Book of the Year 2010 for The Honor Code.
- One of New York Times Book Review's 100 Notable Books of 2010 for The Honor Code.
- New Jersey Council for the Humanities Book Award 2011 for The Honor Code.
- In August 2016, he was given the title of Nkosuahene of Nyaduom. This means he became a traditional chief of the Ashanti people in Ghana.
- In 2017, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
- In June 2017, the Carnegie Corporation of New York named him one of its "Great Immigrants."
- In December 2021, he received the prestigious Gold Medal from The National Institute of Social Sciences.
- In June 2022, Professor Appiah received an Honorary Degree from University of Cambridge. This degree is given to people who have made amazing achievements.
- 2024 John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity, awarded by the Library of Congress. This prize recognizes work in fields not covered by the Nobel Prizes.
See also
In Spanish: Kwame Anthony Appiah para niños
- African philosophy
