This clear and engaging introduction is the first book to assess the ideas of Kwame Anthony Appiah, the Ghanaian-British philosopher who is a leading public intellectual today. The book focuses on the theme of ''identity'' and is structured around five main topics, corresponding to the subjects of his major works: race, culture, liberalism, cosmopolitanism, and moral revolutions.
This helpful book:
- Teaches students about the sources, opportunities, and dilemmas of personal and social identity-whether on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, or class, among others-in the purview of Appiah.
- Locates Appiah within a broader tradition of intellectual engagement with these issues-involving such thinkers as W. E. B. Du Bois, John Stuart Mill, and Martha Nussbaum-and, thus, how Appiah is both an inheritor and innovator of preceding ideas.
- Seeks to inspire students on how to approach and negotiate identity politics in the present.
