Kwame A. Appiah Knihy

Some moral theorists hold that the realm of morality must be autonomous of the sciences; others maintain that science undermines the authority of moral reasons. This book elaborates a vision of naturalism that resists both temptations. It also traces an intellectual genealogy of the burgeoning discipline of 'experimental philosophy'.

A collection of 20 essays which discusses topics such as: gypsies in the Western imagination; the mobilization of the West in Chinese television; the lesbian identity and the woman's gaze in fashion photography; and the regulation of Black women's bodies in early 20th-century urban areas.

Takes both the claims of individuality - the task of making a life - and the claims of identity, these large and often abstract social categories through which we define ourselves. Adopting a interdisciplinary perspective, this book aims at the cliches and received ideas amid which talk of identity so often founders.

[Appiah's] work reveals the heart and sensitivity of a novelist. . . .Fascinating, erudite and beautifully written.-The New York Times Book Review

In this vastly important, widely-acclaimed volume, Appiah, a Ghanaian philosopher who now teaches at Harvard, explores what it means to be an African American, on the many preconceptions that have muddled discussions of face, Africa, and Afrocentrism since the end of the 19th century. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Idealization is a fundamental feature of human thought. We build simplified models to make sense of the world, and life is a constant adjustment between the models we make and the realities we encounter. Our beliefs, desires, and sense of justice are bound up with these ideals, and we proceed "as if" our representations were true, while knowing they are not. In this elegant and original meditation, Kwame Anthony Appiah suggests that this instinct to idealize is not dangerous or distracting so much as it is necessary. As If explores how strategic untruth plays a critical role in far-flung areas of inquiry: decision theory, psychology, natural science, and political philosophy. A polymath who writes with exceptional clarity, Appiah defends the centrality of the imagination not just in the arts but in science, morality, and everyday life. "Appiah is a writer and thinker of remarkable range... [He] has packed into this short book an impressive amount of original reflection... A rich and illuminating book." --Thomas Nagel, New York Review of Books "Appiah is the rare public intellectual who is also a first-rate analytic philosopher, and the characteristic virtues associated with each of these identities are very much in evidence throughout the book." --Thomas Kelly, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Seeks to clear the ground for a discussion of the place of race in politics and in our moral lives. This book contains essays that tackle different aspects of the question of racial justice. It establishes the problematic nature of the idea of race. It explores the history of its invention as a social category.

Challenges the separatist doctrines which have come to dominate our understanding of the world. This work revives the ancient philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, which dates back to the Cynics of the 4th century, as a means of understanding the complex world.

"Who do you think you are? That's a question bound up in another: What do you think you are? Gender. Religion. Race. Nationality. Class. Culture. Such affiliations give contours to our sense of self, and shape our polarized world. Yet the collective identities they spawn are riddled with contradictions, and cratered with falsehoods. Kwame Anthony Appiah's The Lies That Bind is an incandescent exploration of the nature and history of the identities that define us. It challenges our assumptions about how identities work. We all know there are conflicts between identities, but Appiah shows how identities are created by conflict. Religion, he demonstrates, gains power because it isn't primarily about belief. Our everyday notions of race are the detritus of discarded nineteenth-century science. Our cherished concept of the sovereign nation--of self-rule--is incoherent and unstable. Class systems can become entrenched by efforts to reform them. Even the very idea of Western culture is a shimmering mirage. From Anton Wilhelm Amo, the eighteenth-century African child who miraculously became an eminent European philosopher before retiring back to Africa, to Italo Svevo, the literary marvel who changed citizenship without leaving home, to Appiah's own father, Joseph, an anticolonial firebrand who was ready to give his life for a nation that did not yet exist, Appiah interweaves keen-edged argument with vibrant narratives to expose the myths behind our collective identities. These 'mistaken identities,' Appiah explains, can fuel some of our worst atrocities--from chattel slavery to genocide. And yet, he argues that social identities aren't something we can simply do away with. They can usher in moral progress and bring significance to our lives by connecting the small scale of our daily existence with larger movements, causes, and concerns. Elaborating a bold and clarifying new theory of identity, The Lies That Bind is a ringing philosophical statement for the anxious, conflict-ridden twenty-first century. This book will transform the way we think about who--and what--'we' are."--Dust jacket