Race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexuality. In the past couple of decades, a great deal of attention has been paid to such collective identities. They clamor for recognition and respect, sometimes at the expense of other things we value. But to what extent do "identities" constrain our freedom, our ability to make an individual life and to what extent do they enable our individuality?

The conclusion Appiah eloquently affirms is spot on: the key to living a moral life is clearly not to seek to forego identity. On the contrary, it is to put identity in the service of becoming ethical human beings.

Kwame Anthony Appiah undertakes to combine a form of liberalism that aspires to universal validity with a full recognition and substantial acceptance of the important cultural and ethical diversity that characterizes our world.

"The result is a thorough exploration of moral concepts." Carl Elliott, The American Prospect

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. . . . [T]he 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.

This book, with its fluid, inviting phrasing, is exceptionally well written. . . . It is effective, insightful, and thought-provoking. . . . Appiah clears the way for a justification of a narrative, pragmatic, particular relations-based cosmopolitanism, which is universal without the necessity of theoretical agreement.

Kwame Anthony Appiah, a man of multiple cultures and languages who is able to question culture itself, leaves us better able to contemplate how to lead life well and to relate ethically to others in the process.

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.

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 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.

In the debates over diversity, rights, group identities or group conflict, , 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.

Kwame Anthony Appiah is Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy and the Center for Human Values at Princeton University. His books include two monographs in the philosophy of language as well as the widely acclaimed "In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture", "Cosmopolitanism" [Norton], and, with Amy Gutmann, "Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race". He has also edited or co-edited many books, including (with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.) "Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience". His most recent book is "Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy".

PREFACE ix

Chapter One: The Ethics of Individuality 1

THE GREAT EXPERIMENT--LIBERTY AND INDIVIDUALITY--PLANS OF LIFE--THE SOUL OF THE SERVITOR--

SOCIAL CHOICES--INVENTION AND AUTHENTICITY--THE SOCIAL SCRIPTORIUM--

ETHICS IN IDENTITY--INDIVIDUALITY AND THE STATE--THE COMMON PURSUIT

Chapter Two: Autonomy and Its Critics 36

WHAT AUTONOMY DEMANDS--AUTONOMY AS INTOLERANCE--AUTONOMY AGONISTES--THE TWO STANDPOINTS-- AGENCY AND THE INTERESTS OF THEORY

Chapter Three: The Demands of Identity 62

LEARNING HOW TO CURSE--THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL IDENTITIES--MILLET MULTICULTURALISM--AUTONOMISM, PLURALISM, NEUTRALISM--

A FIRST AMENDMENT EXAMPLE: THE ACCOMMODATIONIST PROGRAM--NEUTRALITY RECONSIDERED--THE LANGUAGE OF RECOGNITION--THE MEDUSA SYNDROME--LIMITS AND PARAMETERS

Chapter Four: The Trouble with Culture 114

MAKING UP THE DIFFERENCE--IS CULTURE A GOOD?--THE PRESERVATIONIST ETHIC--NEGATION AS AFFIRMATION-- THE DIVERSITY PRINCIPLE

Chapter Five: Soul Making 155

SOULS AND THE STATE--THE SELF-MANAGEMENT CARD--RATIONAL WELL-BEING--IRRATIONAL IDENTITIES-- SOUL MAKING AND STEREOTYPES--EDUCATED SOULS--CONFLICTS OVER IDENTITY CLAIMS

Chapter Six: Rooted Cosmopolitanism 213

A WORLDWIDE WEB--RUTHLESS COSMOPOLITANS--ETHICAL PARTIALITY--TWO CONCEPTS OF OBLIGATION--COSMOPOLITAN PATRIOTISM--

CONFRONTATION AND CONVERSATION--RIVALROUS GOODS, RIVALROUS GODS--TRAVELING TALES--GLOBALIZING HUMAN RIGHTS--COSMOPOLITAN CONVERSATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 273

NOTES 277

INDEX 341