The Ethics of Identity

A bold vision of liberal humanism for navigating today's complex world of growing identity politics and rising nationalism

Collective identities such as race, nationality, religion, gender, and sexuality clamor for recognition and respect, sometimes at the expense of other things we value. To what extent do they constrain our freedom, and to what extent do they enable our individuality? Is diversity of value in itself? Has the rhetoric of human rights been overstretched? Kwame Anthony Appiah draws on thinkers through the ages and across the globe to explore such questions, developing an account of ethics that connects moral obligations with collective allegiances and that takes aim at clichés and received ideas about identity. This classic book takes seriously 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. Kwame Anthony Appiah is professor of philosophy and law at New York University. His many books include the prize-winning Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers and The Lies That Bind. His column, "The Ethicist," appears weekly in the New York Times Magazine. "Appiah has written a remarkably impressive book, one that makes a number of important advances on the existing literature and stands as an important contribution to political and moral philosophy and moral psychology. It will be very widely read."-Jacob Levy, McGill University



"The Ethics of Identity is a major overhaul of the vocabulary of contemporary political and critical thought-the vocabulary of identity, diversity, authenticity, cosmopolitanism, and culture. The load of hidden assumptions carried by these words had become overwhelming, and someone needed to take them to the shop and give them a thorough philosophical servicing. But Kwame Anthony Appiah has done more than that. He has returned those terms to us clarified, refreshed, and ready for use in a more sophisticated and flexible philosophy of liberalism-and, along the way, he has provided us with a new reading of liberalism's old hero, John Stuart Mill. Appiah's writing is unparalleled in its elegance, its lucidity, and its humanity. Accept no substitutes."-Louis Menand, Harvard University



"In the debates over diversity, rights, group identities, and group conflict, The Ethics of Identity is the land of lucidity. Appiah's elegant book resists the easy alternatives of universal liberalism and multiculturalism and instead defends-and illustrates on every page-a rooted cosmopolitanism. The sparkling prose, vivid examples, and probing questions navigate the choppy waters of personal and political constructions of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and sexuality. This fine and wise book invites readers to remain willing to distinguish tolerance and respect-and by engaging with both the lives people make for themselves and the communities and narratives that render them meaningful."-Martha Minow, Harvard Law School and author of Not Only for Myself: Identity, Politics, and the Law ""Nobody is better placed than Anthony Appiah to make the case for rooted cosmopolitanism.""---Alan Ryan, New York Review of Books "Suave and discerning. . . . Appiah seeks to reorient political philosophy by returning to the example set by John Stuart Mill. . . . For all of Appiah's philosophic precision, his writing often resembles not Mill's but that of Oscar Wilde-to my mind, the finest prose stylist of the 19th century. . . . The superb rhetorical performance of this book offers the most persuasive evidence for his case. . . . To read The Ethics of Identity is to enter into the world it describes; it is also to imagine what it might be like to live in so urbane and expansive a place."---Jonathan Freedman, New York Times Book Review "[An] impressive book. . . . [A] thorough exploration of moral concepts such as authenticity, tolerance, individu