Spring Break
An exclusive interview with Kwame Anthony Appiah
by Anya Bergman
News | 10/28/08
Posted online at 3:37 AM EST on 10/28/08
On the prize:
Appiah said he hopes that as more people win the prize, a bibliography will develop of ideas about how to solve some problems concerning racial, ethnic and/or religious relations.
He said he will use the prize money to travel to China, where he has never been. He said he knew about China growing up because his grandmother was the president of a trust that brought Chinese students to Britain.
He said the trip will allow him to create a dialog between the political theory traditionally grown out of the European enlightenment and the political theory grown out of Confucianism. He said this is a good example of a cosmopolitanism conversation and could cause him to change his convictions or reinforce them.
On Brandeis:
Appiah said that Gittler's faith in the University's mission of social justice is a "great vote of confidence in Brandeis."
"The University can prepare students for and engage them with issues of social justice globally," Appiah said.
On the freedom to make choices:
Appiah said humans should have the freedom to pick things they want to explore and take seriously. He chose to live in America, rather than London where he was born or Ghana were he grew up, because he said American universities are the best places to do his research.
By developing extensive mutual knowledge of what is happening in other places and how people think about things, one can understand his or her own place better. One can see how his or her ideas and lifestyle fit into the world but can also pick ideas up from other people.
On his future:
Appiah said he is planning to spend the next few years thinking about the philosophical democratic theory. He is at the beginning of the process of reading literature and theory.
-Compiled by Anya Bergman
Appiah said he hopes that as more people win the prize, a bibliography will develop of ideas about how to solve some problems concerning racial, ethnic and/or religious relations.
He said he will use the prize money to travel to China, where he has never been. He said he knew about China growing up because his grandmother was the president of a trust that brought Chinese students to Britain.
He said the trip will allow him to create a dialog between the political theory traditionally grown out of the European enlightenment and the political theory grown out of Confucianism. He said this is a good example of a cosmopolitanism conversation and could cause him to change his convictions or reinforce them.
On Brandeis:
Appiah said that Gittler's faith in the University's mission of social justice is a "great vote of confidence in Brandeis."
"The University can prepare students for and engage them with issues of social justice globally," Appiah said.
On the freedom to make choices:
Appiah said humans should have the freedom to pick things they want to explore and take seriously. He chose to live in America, rather than London where he was born or Ghana were he grew up, because he said American universities are the best places to do his research.
By developing extensive mutual knowledge of what is happening in other places and how people think about things, one can understand his or her own place better. One can see how his or her ideas and lifestyle fit into the world but can also pick ideas up from other people.
On his future:
Appiah said he is planning to spend the next few years thinking about the philosophical democratic theory. He is at the beginning of the process of reading literature and theory.
-Compiled by Anya Bergman
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