Fall 2007 Prentiss M. Brown Distinguished Lecture

This year's Prentiss M. Brown distinguished lecturer was Kwame Anthony Appiah. Professor Appiah is the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. He is the Chair of the Board of the American Council of Learned Societies and also the President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association.

He spoke in Towsley Hall, on September 20th, on topics related to his 2007 book: Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers.

Among many other awards, Professor Appiah has won the Herskovits award for the best book published on Africa in English, the North American Social Philosophy award for the book making the best contribution to that discipline, the Ralph J.Bunche award for the best scholarly work in political science that explores issues of ethnic and cultural pluralism, the Gustavo Myers award for the outstanding book on human rights in North America, and the Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations. His remarkable range of accomplishments is further detailed on his website: http://www.appiah.net/.

The evening was a truly remarkable one. A large number of faculty, emeriti and staff have told us that they found Professor Appiah's engagement with the campus community to be scintillating.

Professor Appiah met with honors students over dinner at 5:00 on Thursday the 20th in the Briton Room. He spoke to the College at 7:00 with a reception afterwards. Breakfast with interested faculty was at 8:00 on Friday. He met with a room full of interested students in the Observatory classroom at 10:00 Friday morning, and had lunch with faculty at 11-12:30 in the Briton Room. We thank him for his gracious presence.