Philosopher Kwame Appiah Awarded Honorary Degree

Kwame Appiah

On May 12, 2019, Philospher Kwame Anthony Appiah was one of four distinguished scholars to receive an Honorary Degree at Duke's Commencement.  Appiah is a Professor of philosophy and law at New York University and has taught at Yale, Cornell, Princeton, and Harvard.  From 1990-91, he taught philosophy and literature at Duke.  His works include, "In My Father's House:  Africa in the Philosophy of Culture" and "Cosmopolitanism:  Ethics in a World of Strangers."  He also writes The Ethicist column in The New York Times Magazine.  Appiah is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and former president of the Modern Language Association.  President Obama presented him with the National Humanities Medal in 2012, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York named him to its list of Great Immigrants in 2017.  Our own professor and chair of Duke's Department of Philosophy, Andrew Janiak, is quoted as saying, "Appiah is a consummate public intellectual, one whose work stands for the notion that philosophy can and should be engaged in the world."