Kwame Anthony Appiah

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Kwame Anthony Appiah (Londen, 1954 - ) is een Ghanees-Amerikaans filosoof, cultuurtheoreticus en schrijver. Zijn interesseveld omvat o.a. politieke en ethische theorie, taalfilosofie, filosofie van de geest en Afrikaanse intellectuele geschiedenis.

Inhoud 1 Biografie 2 Gedachtegoed 3 Publicaties 3.1 Boeken 3.2 Romans 3.3 Bundels 3.4 Essays 4 Externe links

[bewerk] Biografie

Appiah werd geboren in Londen, als zoon van de Ghanese politicus Joe Appiah en kinderboekenschrijfster Peggy Cripps. Hij bracht zijn jeugd door in Kumasi in Ghana, waarna hij terugkeerde naar het Verenigd Koninkrijk voor zijn studies aan Bryanston School en later aan de Clare college van de University of Cambridge. Hier behaalde hij ook de graad van Doctor in de filosofie.

Appiah was docent in de filosofie en de Afrika- en African-American studies aan de Universiteit van Ghana, de University of Cambridge, Duke University, Cornell University, Yale University, Harvard University en Princeton University. Momenteel is hij Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy aan de Princeton University in New Jersey.

In 1992 publiceerde Appiah het boek In my father's house, waarmee hij de Herskovitz Prize for African Studies in English won. Tot zijn recentere werk behoren de boeken Colour Conscious (met Amy Gutmann), The ethics of identity en Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of strangers.

Naast zijn werk als docent was Appiah in het verleden ook bestuurslid van het PEN American center. Samen met Henry Louis Gates Jr. is hij ook redacteur van Transition Magazine.

[bewerk] Gedachtegoed

Het vroege filosofische werk van Appiah handelt over probabilistische semantiek en betekenistheorieën. In zijn meer recente werk is de aandacht verschoven naar de problematiek rond rassen en racisme, identiteit en ethische theorieën. Hij wordt hierbij beïnvloed door de Cosmpolitische filosofische traditie, die filosofen als Hegel tot W. E. B. DuBois en anderen omvat.

Naast filosofisch werk heeft Appiah ook enkele romans geschreven in het detectivegenre. De romans hebben tot op heden echter geen van allen een groot publiek bereikt. De titels van de drie romans zijn respectievelijk Avenging Angel, Nobody likes Letitia en Another death in Venice.

[bewerk] Publicaties

[bewerk] Boeken

• Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006.
• The Ethics of Identity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.
• Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Africana: The Concise Desk Reference. onder redactie samen met H.L. Gates Jr. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2003.
• Kosmopolitische Patriotismus. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2002.
• Bu Me Bé: The Proverbs of the Akan. Samen met echtgenote Peggy Appiah en een assistent, Ivor Agyeman-Duah. Accra: The Center for Intellectual Renewal, 2002.
• Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race. Samen met Amy Gutmann, ingeleid door 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 Press, 1985.

[bewerk] Romans

• Another Death in Venice: A Sir Patrick Scott Investigation. London: Constable, 1995.
• Nobody Likes Letitia. London: Constable, 1994.
• Avenging Angel. London: Constable, 1990; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991.

[bewerk] Bundels

• 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: Microsoft, 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 Bunzl and Kwame Anthony Appiah, with an introduction by Kevin Bales. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.

[bewerk] Essays

• “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 Press, 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 Wise (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 Press, 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 Habermas, 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 Lentricchia & 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.
• "Structuralist Criticism and African fiction: an Analytic Critique.” Black American Literature Forum, 15. 4 (Winter 1981) p.165-174.

[bewerk] Externe links

• Appiah's homepage op de website van Princeton University
• Appiah's persoonlijke website
• "The Ethics of Identity" Radio interview
• "What is Race?" Radio interview