The Justice

Media Credit: Julian Agin-Liebes Prof. Appiah says cosmopolitanism means caring about others and taking good ideas from them.

Philosopher and professor Kwame Anthony Appiah outlined a vision of world citizenship that is independent of global government and improves the welfare of the world community upon receiving the inaugural $25,000 Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize from University President Jehuda Reinharz yesterday.

Reinharz explained that starting this year Brandeis will annually award the prize for outstanding and lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic and/or religious relations. "Sometimes we don't pay as much attention to this field as we should." He added that the award will provide an opportunity to have "scholars of great distinction" come to Brandeis and address the community.

Reinharz recalled that twelve years ago he received an unexpected call from Gittler, a sociology professor who taught at Duke University, George Mason University and Iowa State University. "He told me that as a sociologist all his life he wanted to get a job at Brandeis," Reinharz said. "The values of Brandeis, particularly its strong belief in social justice, is what appealed to him." Reinharz explained that Gittler told him the prize was named for him, as well as his mother, Toby, because she "really taught [him] everything."

Appiah explained in his speech that his own family background also strongly influenced his worldview. "I, too, feel that my moral horizons [and] literary horizons were shaped and formed by having an extraordinary mother," he said. In his childhood, she encouraged openness to other beliefs and cultures, he remembered. "In our library at home there was a religious section that included not only versions of the Bible, but we also had Bahai'i works, the Koran, and the Epic of Gilgamesh."

Growing up in Kumasi, Ghana, Appiah said he experienced cosmopolitanism, the idea that all humans are part of a moral community, firsthand. In addition to interactions with Iranians, Lebanese and Syrians, "there were also lots of strange Europeans, a Greek architect, a Hungarian whose wife was an artist, Irish doctor, Scottish engineers and English officers," Appiah explained. "I was lucky that the diversity of our city was not a source of conflict."

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