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In his far-reaching examination of multiculturalism, Kwame Anthony Appiah stresses the possibilities of maintaining a pluralistic culture of many identities and sub-cultures while retaining the civil and political practices that sustain national life in the classic sense. He begins with a discussion of what the word "culture" might mean, suggesting that "culture" and "identity" inevitably conflict in the emergence of the "individual." He engages Charles Taylor's proposal that sub-cultural identity should be a matter of state maintenance, problematizing certain contemporary methods of teaching multiculturalism, suggesting instead a more inclusive cultural education for a pluralistic society than is usually achieved by teaching culture only to those who belong to a particular community. With the example of French Canadians he illustrates that the interests of cultural preservation would not be satisfied if the language and social practice of French Canada were to be preserved by a group of Polynesians living on a remote island in the Pacific. This would not be acceptable because a consistent issue in nationalism and cultural survival is the desire to transmit culture, values and practices from one generation to another, hence the importance of participation by the state's educational system in maintaining culture and cultural plurality. Appiah warns against proscribing "correct" behavior to the life scripts of people whose difference--whether sexual, racial or national--has been constituted as part of their identity, since to do so would suggest the possibility of authentic and inauthentic life scripts and all the problems that attend like assumptions. Appiah concludes by suggesting that the possibilities of having a common set of institutions and a common culture in addition to the pluralistic identities of an open society is the difficult goal towards which we must strive. Commentaries by Jorge Klor de Alva (Ethnic Studies), David Hollinger (History) and Angela Harris (Law) draw out several of the themes suggested by Appiah's lecture.

Examines the presuppositions of beliefs regarding race & racism from a theoretical & substantive perspective. From a rational standpoint, racism involves both propositions & dispositions. The first proposition, deemed racialism, suggests that there are heritable differences among humans that permit racial categorization, & that these races share specific traits & characteristics absent in other races. It is argued that racialism alone is not necessarily dangerous, but that this proposition has been the basis of false & threatening beliefs regarding race. The distinction is made between extrinsic racism, which claims that racial differences are correlated with morally relevant distinctions, & intrinsic racism, which proposes that racial differences are intrinsically morally significant. The disposition of racism is described as the tendency to use racial difference as a basis for policies or beliefs that discriminate against certain races. Based on the fact that racialism's link between race & personal characteristics is inherently false (based on genetic & theoretical research), it is concluded that both forms of racism are false due to their theoretical reliance on racialism. T. Sevier

Als Sohn einer aus der Oberschicht stammenden Engländerin und eines zur Aristokratie seines Landes gehörenden Ghanaers sind dem in New York lehrenden Philosophieprofessor schon durch seine Herkunft mehrere Identitäten anhängig. In den USA als schwarz und schwul lebend, weist dies auf weitere Identitätsmerkmale hin und macht deutlich, dass die Kategorien Herkunft, Religion, Hautfarbe, Klasse, Kultur niemals starre Klassifizierungen sein können, auf die Menschen eindeutig festzulegen sind. Eine solche Festlegung führe zu Missverständnissen und Irrtümern - z.B. wenn es um die fiktive "Reinheit" der Nation geht. Viele Vorstellungen über Identitäten müssten neu interpretiert und ausgehandelt werden. - Appiah schreibt in klarer Diktion, formuliert elegant und belegt alles mit Beispielen aus Geschichte und Literatur. Er zeigt, jenseits der Klischees können Identitäten ganz unterschiedlich gelebt werden. Wenngleich er damit rechte Positionen widerlegt, ist dies keine Streitschrift, sondern ein Plädoyer für Vielfalt und Respekt. Anregend und aktuell. (2-3)

Wie wir ein gutes Leben erlangen und was es ausmacht, sind die Fragen der Ethik, seit es sie gibt. Doch was, wenn diese Fragen überflüssig sind? Denn Psychologie, Gehirnforschung und Evolutionsbiologie können uns heute genauer denn je erklären, was unser Verhalten bestimmt und unsere moralischen Urteile steuert. Mit seinen gedanklichen Experimenten gewöhnt Kwame Anthony Appiah uns daran, dass philosophische Ethik und empirische Wissenschaft das richtige Leben nur gemeinsam erkunden können. Zugänglich, klar und in seiner funkelnden Schärfe bestechend macht er deutlich, wo die Grenzen der beiden liegen: Die neue empirische Moralforschung kann uns mit ihren Experimenten nur sagen, was wir tatsächlich tun und fühlen, aber nicht, was wir tun oder fühlen sollen. Die Ethik - und jeder Mensch, der ein tugendhaftes Leben sucht - geht hingegen in die Irre, wenn sie das wirkliche Verhalten des Menschen nicht kennt. Appiah öffnet die Türen zwischen Philosophie und Empirie, ohne der Philosophie ihre Dignität zu nehmen. Damit aber kann er auch eine Art des Philosophierens wiederbeleben, die schon die Antike praktiziert hat und die in der westlichen Tradition zu lange vergessen war.

"British cannibals" : contemplation of an event in the death and resurrection of James Cook, explorer / Gananath Obeyesekere -- Race into culture : a critical genealogy of cultural identity / Walter Benn Michaels -- Occidentalism as counterdiscourse : "He Shang" in post-Mao China / Xiaomei Chen -- Fashion and the homospectatorial look / Diana Fuss -- Policing the black women's body in an urban context / Hazel V. Carby -- Woman skin deep : feminism and the postcolonial condition / Sara Suleri -- Acting bit : identity talk / Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak -- The empire renarrated : Season of migration to the north and the reinvention of the present / Saree S. Makdisi -- What is a Muslim? : fundamental commitment and cultural identity / Akeel Bilgrami -- Nationalism and social division in black arts poetry of the 1960's / Philip Brian Harper -- Black writing, white reading : race and the politics of feminist interpretation / Elizabeth Abel -- The erotics of Irishness / Cheryl Herr -- Diaspora : generation and the ground of Jewish identity / Daniel Boyarin and Jonathan Boyarin -- The time of the Gypsies : a "people without history" in the narratives of the West / Katie Trumpener --White philosophy / Avery Gordon and Christopher Newfield -- The no-drop rule / Walter Benn Michaels -- Fashionable theory and fashionable women : returning Fuss's homospectatorial look / Molly Anne Rothenberg and Joseph Valente -- Look who's talking, or if looks could kill / Diana Fuss -- Response to Identities / Michael Gorra -- Collected and fractured : response to Identities / Judith Butler

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Foreword -- Introduction -- PART I: THE ECONOMICS OF REDEMPTION -- Chapter 1: Some Simple Analytics of Slave Redemption -- Chapter 2: Slave Redemption When It Takes Time to Redeem Slaves -- Chapter 3: An Exploration of the Worst Forms of Child Labor: Is Redemption a Viable Option? -- Chapter 4: Slavery, Freedom, and Sen -- Chapter 5: Freedom, Servitude, and Voluntary Contracts -- PART II: ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS -- Chapter 6: Slavery and Slave Redemption in the Sudan -- Chapter 7: Dilemmas in the Practice of Rachat in French West Africa -- PART III: HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS -- Chapter 8: The End of Serfdom in Russia-Lessons for Sudan? -- Chapter 9: Conflicting Imperatives: Black and White American Abolitionists Debate Slave Redemption -- Chapter 10: Frederick Douglass and the Politics of Slave Redemptions -- PART IV: PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS -- Chapter 11: The Moral Quandary of Slave Redemption -- Chapter 12: The Next Best Thing -- Chapter 13: What's Wrong with Slavery? -- Appendix: "They Call Us Animals," Testimonies of Abductees and Slaves in Sudan -- List of Contributors -- Index