Research On Appiah’s Ethical Thoughts Of Identity

With the continuous advancement of globalization,in the context of multiple cultures providing many "choosing contexts",cross-cultural individual identities are multiple.How to treat the relationship between identity,culture,and values,and how to deal with the relationship between multiple identities,national identities,and moral obligations are the realities faced in the process of globalization and the ethical problems that need to be resolved urgently.With a broad cross-cultural horizon,Ghanaian-American philosopher Kwame-Anthony· Appiah conducted a systematic and ethical analysis of the relationship between identity,culture and national identity from the perspective of ethics,forming its unique and distinctive identity ethics.This article mainly uses literature method and the value analysis method to systematically study Appiah’s identity ethics.This article first analyzes the cultural background of Appiah’s identity ethics from the development of multiculturalism and the debate between liberalism and communalism,revealing the important influence of Mill’s liberalism and Charles Taylor’s "authentic self’ on Appiah’s identity ethics.On this basis,the logical system of Appiah’s identity ethics was explored and constructed from the three dimensions of ethical basis,ethical shaping and ethical promotion.This article believes that in the ethical basis dimension,Appiah takes personal personality development as the starting point of identity ethics;in the ethical shaping dimension,Appiah reveals the role of collective identity and social identity in the process of individual identity shaping,and the ethical attitude that the country should adopt for the social identification of diversity;in the dimension of ethical promotion,Appiah explained the culture that affects individual multiple identity and how to deal with the relationship between multiple identity and national identity.The study aims to show that,under the tide of multicultural development,Appiah advocates the promotion of cross-cultural communication,and certainly pursues the individual’s independent choice,respects the members’ diverse independent choices and the possibility of obtaining multiple identities.In order to prevent individual multiple identities from falling into the relativism of identity,we must adhere to the ethical priority of national identity.Appiah tries to transcend the boundaries of Western and non-Western,local and world,self and others in the identity ethics,and maintain the necessary tension.The national identity advocated by Appiah’s identity ethics is not nationalism.It is necessary to conduct a dialogue among ethical communities,to have a cosmopolitan vision,to adhere to the ethical priority of national identity.These values and ethical pursuit has important implications for the current active adaptation to the challenges of globalization,proper handling of the relationship between multiple identities and national identities,optimization of national identity awareness,and promotion of the construction of a community of human destiny.It should be pointed out that in the identity ethics advocated by Appiah,the argument of multiple identities is relatively thin,the argument between the unity of national identity and the superposition is insufficient,and the dialogue between the ethical communities is ultimately a dialogue between self and others.