Appiah was born in London, England,[6] to
Peggy Cripps Appiah (née Cripps), an English
art historian and writer, and
Joe Appiah, a
lawyer,
diplomat, and
politician from
Ashanti Region, Ghana. For two years (1970–1972) Joe Appiah was the leader of a new opposition party that was made by the country's three opposing parties. Simultaneously, he was the president of the
Ghana Bar Association. Between 1977 and 1978, he was Ghana's representative at the United Nations.[7]
Through Professor Appiah's father, a
Nana of the
Ashanti people, he is 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. Also among his African ancestors is the Ashanti
nobleman Nana Akroma-Ampim I of Nyaduom, a warrior whose name the Professor now bears.
He lives with his husband, Henry Finder, an editorial director of The New Yorker,[11] in an apartment in Manhattan, and a home in
Pennington, New Jersey with a small sheep farm.[6] Appiah has written about what it was like growing up gay in Ghana.[12]
Appiah taught philosophy and
African-American studies at the
University of Ghana,
Cornell,
Yale,
Harvard, and
Princeton 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 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.[16] 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. Until the fall of 2009, he served as a trustee of
Ashesi University College in
Accra, Ghana. Since 2014, he is a professor of philosophy and law at NYU.
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., with whom he edited Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience. Appiah was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995.[17]
In 2008, Appiah published Experiments 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 when
Brandeis University awarded him the first Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize.[18]
As well as his academic work, Appiah has also published several works of fiction. 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. Appiah's second and third novels are Nobody Likes Letitia and Another 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.[19] In 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine on its list of top global thinkers.[20] On 13 February 2012, Appiah was awarded the
National Humanities Medal at a ceremony at the
White House.[21]
Appiah argues that the formative
denotation of
culture is preceded by the efficacy of
intellectual interchange.[clarification needed] From this position he views organisations such as
UNICEF and
Oxfam in two lights: on the one hand he seems to appreciate the immediate action these organisations provide while on the other he points out their long-term futility. 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.
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.[23]
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, all of which concepts can also be found in his book Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.
On
postmodern 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."[24]
Cosmopolitanism
Appiah has been influenced by the
cosmopolitanist philosophical tradition, which stretches from German thinkers such as
G. W. F. Hegel to African American thinkers like
W. 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." But Appiah first defined it as its problems but ultimately determines that practising 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.[25]
In his book Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006),[26] 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."[27]
In Lies that Bind (2018), Appiah attempts to deconstruct identities of creed, colour, country, and class.[28]
Criticism of Afrocentric world view
Appiah has been a critic of contemporary theories of
Afrocentrism. 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 in
ancient Egypt via
Greece, then "its legacy of ethnocentrism is presumably one of our moral liabilities."[29]
In popular culture
In 2007, Appiah was a contributing scholar in the PBS-broadcast documentary Prince Among Slaves produced by Unity Productions Foundation.[30]
In 2007, he also appeared in the TV documentary series Racism: A History as an on-screen contributor.[31]
Appiah appeared alongside a number of contemporary philosophers in
Astra Taylor's 2008 film Examined Life, discussing his views on cosmopolitanism.
In 2009, he was an on-screen contributor to the movie Herskovits: At the Heart of Blackness.[32]
In 2015, he became one of three contributors to the New York Times Magazine column "The Ethicist",[33] before assuming sole authorship of the column later that year.[34]
He delivered the BBC's
Reith Lectures in late 2016 on the theme of Mistaken Identities.[35]
In late 2016, he contended that
Western civilization did not exist, and argued that many uniquely Western attributes and values were instead shared among many "non-western" cultures and/or eras.[36]
In 2018, Appiah appeared in the episode "Can We Live Forever?" of the documentary series Explained.[37]
1993 Herskovits Award of the
African Studies Association "for the best work published in English on Africa", for In My Father's House, December 1993[40]
Annual Book Award, 1996,
North American Society for Social Philosophy, "for the book making the most significant contribution to social philosophy" for Color Conscious, May 1997
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" for Color 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, for Color Conscious, 10 December 1997
Honorable Mention, Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights for The Ethics of Identity, 9 December 2005
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
Global Thought Leaders Index 2015, No. 95, The World Post
In August 2016, he was
enstooled as the Nkosuahene of Nyaduom, a
Ghanaian chief of the
Ashanti people, in Nyaduom - his family's ancestral chiefdom in Ghana.
In June 2022, Professor Appiah received an Honorary Degree from
Cambridge University. This is a degree that is bestowed upon people who have made outstanding achievements in their respective fields.[46]
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.
With
Gutmann, Amy (1996). Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
ISBN9780691026619.
With Appiah, 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.
With Gates 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", in
Bloom, 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", in
Goldberg, 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", in
Mudimbe, 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 de
Bogumil 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", in
Garber, 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", in
Wise, 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", in
Gutmann, 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", in
Post, 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", in
Kanbur, 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.
Journal articles
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 of
Emmanuelle Loyer, Lévi-Strauss: A Biography, translated from the French by Ninon Vinsonneau and Jonathan Magidoff, Polity, 2019, 744 pp.; and
Maurice 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 brilliant reader.... When the landmarks of science succeed in advancing their subject, they need no longer be consulted: physicists don't study
Newton; chemists don't pore over
Lavoisier.... 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 from
the original on 3 February 2011. Retrieved 15 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 the New Yorker magazine. (In Pennington, they have a small sheep farm.)
^Howard, Joseph Jackson; Crisp, Frederick Arthur, eds. (1899). Visitation of England and Wales, Volume VII. England: Privately printed. pp. 150–151.
OCLC786249679.
Online.
^Simmons, Ann M. (6 October 2017),
Canadian Charles Margrave Taylor wins inaugural Berggruen Prize for Philosophy, Los Angeles Times: "Kwame Anthony Appiah, a New York University professor and philosopher who chaired this year's Berggruen Prize jury, praised the 'breadth and depth' of Taylor's intellectual contributions."
^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" in Perspectives on Africa, ed. Richard Roy Grinker and Christopher B. Steiner (London: Blackwell Publishers, 1997), pp. 728–731.
^"Home page". upf.tv. Unity Productions Foundation. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
^Appiah, Kwame Anthony.
"Curriculum vitae". appiah.net. Kwame Anthony Appiah.