Appiah's New Book: The Ethics of Identityi

The following is not directly relevant to academic freedom, but is a reminder that what we are facing today once again is the threat of tyranny to minorities by self-styled majorities. I sent what follows to my student list. It strikes me that it is relevant background to our concerns here.

Mill, as did the noted British legal philosopher, H.L.A. Hart, a century later [ http://www.timesandseasons.org/archives/000429.html ] engaged in debates with social conservatives who believed among other things that society (the majority in democratic ones) had the right to censor, indeed, punish unpopular attitudes and activities that harmed no one except at most the ones who enacted them as expressions of their own liberty and, as Appiah notes, quests for their self identities. Ed Kent

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We read Kwame Anthony Appiah's excellent article on racism in Philosophy 6. Here he reexamines John Stuart Mill to find an updated basis for personal identity which can entertain such modern varieties as racial and sexual orientation identities. One car read here the first chapter of his new book for free this week only and the review apparently indefinitely. Ed Kent

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Note: Articles from the last 7 days are free, as are all reviews back to 1996. Articles in the Article Archive: 1996-Present ($) may be purchased for as little as $1.60.

BOOKS / SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW | June 12, 2005
'The Ethics of Identity': A Rooted Cosmopolitan
By JONATHAN FREEDMAN (NYT) Review
About: ETHICS OF IDENTITY, THE (BOOK)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/books/review/12FREEDMA.html

BOOKS / FIRST CHAPTERS | June 12, 2005
'The Ethics of Identity'
By KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH (NYT) Transcript

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/books/chapters/0612-1st-appiah.html
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