Through Appiah's father, aNana of theAshanti people, he is a direct descendant ofOsei Tutu, the warrior emperor of pre-colonial Ghana, whose reigning successor, theAsantehene, is a distant relative of the Appiah family. Also among his African ancestors is the Ashantinobleman Nana Akroma-Ampim I ofNyaduom, a warrior after whom Appiah was named.[8]
He lives with his husband, Henry Finder, an editorial director ofThe New Yorker,[9] in an apartment in Manhattan, and a home inPennington, New Jersey with a small sheep farm.[5]
Appiah became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1997.[10][11] The actorAdetomiwa Edun is one of his nephews, the son of his sister Amy Appiah.[12][13]
Kwame Anthony Appiah during a lecture and visit toKnox College in 2006.
Appiah taught philosophy andAfrican-American studies at theUniversity of Ghana,Cornell,Yale,Harvard, andPrinceton Universities from 1981 to 1988. Until 2014, he was the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton (with a cross-appointment at the University Center for Human Values) and also was the Bacon-Kilkenny Professor of Law atFordham University in the fall of 2008. Appiah also served on the board ofPEN American Center and was on a panel of judges for thePEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award.[14] He has lectured at many other institutions in the US, Germany, Ghana and South Africa, and Paris. Until the fall of 2009, he served as a trustee ofAshesi University College inAccra, Ghana. Since 2014, he has been a professor of philosophy and law at NYU.
His Cambridge dissertation explored the foundations ofprobabilistic semantics. In 1992, Appiah publishedIn My Father's House, which won theHerskovitz Prize for African Studies in English. Among his later books areColour Conscious (withAmy Gutmann),The Ethics of Identity (2005), andCosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006). He has been a close collaborator withHenry Louis Gates Jr., with whom he editedAfricana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience. Appiah was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995.[15]
In 2008, Appiah publishedExperiments in Ethics, in which he reviews the relevance of empirical research to ethical theory. In the same year, he was recognised for his contributions to racial, ethnic, and religious relations whenBrandeis University awarded him the firstJoseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize.[16]
As well as his academic work, Appiah has also published several works of fiction. His first novel,Avenging Angel, set at theUniversity of Cambridge, involved a murder among theCambridge Apostles; Sir Patrick Scott is the detective in the novel. Appiah's second and third novels areNobody Likes Letitia andAnother Death in Venice.
Appiah has been nominated for, or received, several honours. He was the 2009 finalist in the arts and humanities for the Eugene R. Gannon Award for the Continued Pursuit of Human Advancement.[17] In 2010, he was named byForeign Policy magazine on its list of top global thinkers.[18] On 13 February 2012, Appiah was awarded theNational Humanities Medal at a ceremony at theWhite House.[19]
Appiah's early philosophical work dealt withprobabilistic semantics andtheories of meaning, but his more recent books have tackled philosophical problems ofrace andracism,identity, and moral theory. His current work tackles three major areas: 1. the philosophical foundations ofliberalism; 2. the questioning of methods in arriving at knowledge aboutvalues; and 3. the connections between theory and practice in moral life, all of which concepts can also be found in his bookCosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.
Onpostmodern culture, Appiah writes, "Postmodern culture is the culture in which all postmodernisms operate, sometimes in synergy, sometimes in competition; and because contemporary culture is, in a certain sense to which I shall return, transnational, postmodern culture is global – though that emphatically does not mean that it is the culture of every person in the world."[21]
Appiah has been influenced by thecosmopolitan philosophical tradition, which stretches from Greek thinkers such asDiogenes to African American thinkers likeW. E. B. Du Bois, among 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." Accordingly, 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.[22]
In his bookCosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006),[23] Appiah introduces two ideas that "intertwine in the notion of cosmopolitanism" (Emerging, 69). 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 speak to students. One request he makes is, "See one movie with subtitles a month."[24]
InLies that Bind (2018), Appiah attempts to deconstruct identities of creed, colour, country, and class.[25]
Appiah has been a critic of contemporary theories ofAfrocentrism. In his 1997 essay "Europe Upside Down: Fallacies of the New Afrocentrism", he 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 inancient Egypt viaGreece, then "its legacy of ethnocentrism is presumably one of our moral liabilities."[26]
In 2007, Appiah was a contributing scholar in the PBS-broadcast documentaryPrince Among Slaves produced by Unity Productions Foundation.[27]
In 2007, he also appeared in the TV documentary seriesRacism: A History as an on-screen contributor.[28]
Appiah appeared alongside a number of contemporary philosophers inAstra Taylor's 2008 filmExamined Life, discussing his views on cosmopolitanism.
In 2009, he was an on-screen contributor to the movieHerskovits: At the Heart of Blackness.[29]
In 2015, he became one of three contributors to theNew York Times Magazine column "The Ethicist",[30] before assuming sole authorship of the column later that year.[31]
He delivered the BBC'sReith Lectures in late 2016 on the theme ofMistaken Identities.[32]
In late 2016, he contended thatWestern civilization did not exist, and argued that many ostensibly unique Western attributes and values were instead shared among many "non-western" cultures and/or eras.[33]
In 2018, Appiah appeared in the episode "Can We Live Forever?" of the documentary seriesExplained.[34]
Ralph J. Bunche Award,American Political Science Association, "for the best scholarly work in political science which explores the phenomenon of ethnic and cultural pluralism" forColor Conscious, July 1997
Outstanding Book on the subject of human rights in North America,Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America, forColor Conscious, 10 December 1997
Honorable Mention, Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights forThe Ethics of Identity, 9 December 2005
In June 2022, Professor Appiah received an Honorary Degree fromCambridge University. This is a degree that is bestowed upon people who have made outstanding achievements in their respective fields.[45]
Assertion and Conditionals. Cambridge Studies in Philosophy Series. Cambridge Cambridgeshire New York: Cambridge University Press. 1985.ISBN9780521304115.
For Truth in Semantics. Philosophical Theory Series. Oxford, UK; New York, NY, USA: B. Blackwell. 1986.ISBN9780631145967.
WithGutmann, Amy (1996).Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.ISBN9780691026619.
WithAppiah, Peggy; Agyeman-Duah, Ivor (2007) [2002].Bu me b?: Proverbs of the Akans (2nd ed.). Oxfordshire, UK: Ayebia Clarke.ISBN9780955507922.
Kosmopolitischer Patriotismus (in German). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. 2001.ISBN9783518122303.
WithGates Jr., Henry Louis, ed. (2003).Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience: the concise desk reference. Philadelphia: Running Press.ISBN9780762416424.
Translated as:Experimentos de ética (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Madrid: Katz Editores. 2010.ISBN9788492946112.
Mi cosmopolitismo (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Madrid: Katz Editores. 2008.ISBN9788496859371. (En coedición con el Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona.)
Appiah, Anthony (1985), "Soyinka and the philosophy of culture", in Bodunrin, P.O. (ed.),Philosophy in Africa: trends and perspectives, Ile-Ife, Nigeria:University of Ife Press, pp. 250–263,ISBN9789781360725.
Appiah, Anthony (1987), "A long way from home: Richard Wright in the Gold Coast", inBloom, Harold (ed.),Richard Wright, Modern Critical views Series, New York: Chelsea House Publishers, pp. 173–190,ISBN9780877546399.
Appiah, Anthony (1990), "Race", in Lentricchia, Frank;McLaughlin, Tom (eds.),Critical terms for literary study, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 274–287,ISBN9780226472027.
Appiah, Anthony (1990), "Racisms", inGoldberg, David (ed.),Anatomy of racism, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 3–17,ISBN9780816618040.
Appiah, Anthony (1992), "Inventing an African practice in philosophy: epistemological issues", inMudimbe, Valentin-Yves (ed.),The surreptitious speech: Présence Africaine and the politics of otherness, 1947–1987, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 227–237,ISBN9780226545073.
Appiah, Anthony (1992), "African identities", in Amselle, Jean-Loup; Appiah, Anthony; Bagayogo, Shaka; Chrétien, Jean-Pierre; Dakhlia, Jocelyne;Gellner, Ernest; LaRue, Richard; Mudimbe, Valentin-Yves;Topolski, Jerzy (eds.),Constructions identitaires: questionnements théoriques et études de cas, Québec: CÉLAT, Université Laval,ISBN9782920576445. Fernande Saint-Martin sous la direction deBogumil Jewsiewicki et Jocelyn Létourneau, Actes du Célat No. 6, Mai 1992.
Appiah, Kwame Anthony (1995), "Philosophy and necessary questions", in Kwame, Safro (ed.),Readings in African philosophy: an Akan collection, Lanham: University Press of America, pp. 1–22,ISBN9780819199119.
Appiah, K. Anthony (1997), "African-American philosophy?", in Pittman, John (ed.),African-American perspectives and philosophical traditions, New York: Routledge, pp. 11–34,ISBN9780415916400.
Appiah, Kwame Anthony (1996), "Identity: political not cultural", inGarber, Marjorie; Walkowitz, Rebecca L.; Franklin, Paul B. (eds.),Field work: sites in literary and cultural studies, New York: Routledge, pp. 34–40,ISBN9780415914550.
Appiah, Kwame Anthony (1999), "Yambo Ouolouguem and the meaning of postcoloniality", inWise, Christopher (ed.),Yambo Ouologuem: postcolonial writer, Islamic militant, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, pp. 55–63,ISBN9780894108617.
Appiah, Kwame Anthony (2000), "Aufklärung und dialogue der kulturen", in Krull, Wilhelm (ed.),Zukunftsstreit (in German), Weilerwist: Velbrück Wissenschaft, pp. 305–328,ISBN9783934730175.
Appiah, K. Anthony (2001), "Grounding human rights", inGutmann, Amy (ed.),Michael Ignatieff: Human rights as politics and idolatry, The University Center for Human Values Series, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, pp. 101–116,ISBN9780691114743.
Appiah, K. Anthony (2001), "Stereotypes and the shaping of identity", inPost, Robert C. (ed.),Prejudicial appearances: the logic of American antidiscrimination law, Durham:Duke University Press, pp. 55–71,ISBN9780822327134.
Appiah, Kwame Anthony (2009), "Sen's identities", inKanbur, Ravi;Basu, Kaushik (eds.),Arguments for a better world: essays in honor of Amartya Sen | Volume I: Ethics, welfare, and measurement, Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 475–488,ISBN9780199239115.
Appiah, Kwame Anthony (Winter 1981). "Structuralist criticism and African fiction: an analytic critique".Black American Literature Forum.15 (4):165–174.doi:10.2307/2904328.JSTOR2904328.S2CID149470070.
— (1 July 1985). "Verificationism and the manifestations of meaning".Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume.59 (1):17–31.doi:10.1093/aristoteliansupp/59.1.17.
— (Spring 1986). "Review: Deconstruction and the philosophy of language Reviewed Work:The Deconstructive Turn: Essays in the Rhetoric of Philosophy by Christopher Norris".Diacritics.16 (1):48–64.doi:10.2307/464650.JSTOR464650.
— (Spring–Summer 1986). "Review: Are we ethnic? The theory and practice of American pluralism. Reviewed work:Beyond Ethnicity: Consent and Descent in American Culture by Werner Sollors".Black American Literature Forum.20 (1–2):209–224.doi:10.2307/2904561.JSTOR2904561.
— (April 2008). "Chapter 6: Education for global citizenship".Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education.107 (1):83–99.doi:10.1111/j.1744-7984.2008.00133.x.
—"The Key to All Mythologies" (review ofEmmanuelle Loyer,Lévi-Strauss: A Biography, translated from the French by Ninon Vinsonneau and Jonathan Magidoff, Polity, 2019, 744 pp.; andMaurice Godelier,Claude Lévi-Strauss: A Critical Study of His Thought, translated from the French by Nora Scott, Verso, 2019, 540 pp.),The New York Review of Books, vol. LXVII, no. 2 (13 February 2020), pp. 18–20. Appiah concludes his review (p. 20): "Lévi-Strauss... was... an inspired interpreter, a brilliantreader.... When the landmarks of science succeed in advancing their subject, they need no longer be consulted: physicists don't studyNewton; chemists don't pore overLavoisier.... If some part of Lévi-Strauss's scholarly oeuvre survives, it will be because his scientific aspirations have not."
^abAppiah, Kwame Anthony."Biography".appiah.net. Kwame Anthony Appiah. Archived fromthe original on 3 February 2011. Retrieved15 February 2011.Professor Appiah has homes in New York city and near Pennington, in New Jersey, which he shares with his partner, Henry Finder, Editorial Director of theNew Yorker magazine. (In Pennington, they have a small sheep farm.)
^Appiah, Kwame Anthony (April 2008). "Chapter 6: Education for global citizenship".Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education.107 (1):83–99.doi:10.1111/j.1744-7984.2008.00133.x.
^Appiah, Kwame (2006).Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.ISBN0-393-06155-8
^Kwame Anthony Appiah, "Europe Upside Down: Fallacies of the New Afrocentrism" inPerspectives on Africa, ed. Richard Roy Grinker and Christopher B. Steiner (London: Blackwell Publishers, 1997), pp. 728–731.
^"Home page".upf.tv. Unity Productions Foundation.Archived from the original on 16 August 2023. Retrieved21 January 2014.
^Appiah, Kwame Anthony."Curriculum vitae".appiah.net. Kwame Anthony Appiah.Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved26 March 2012.
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