Ethicist Appiah Interviewed in Conversation Series on Free Speech
From The Record - Volume 122, Issue 7
Kwame Anthony Appiah (photo: Barry Mason)
On Tuesday, October 22, Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly inaugurated the second year of his annual Conversation Series on Free Speech, featuring author and New York University Philosophy of Law Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah. “The right to freedom of expression is one of the most powerful rights any human being can be blessed with, but we need to do a better job tending to how we choose our words,” Kelly said.
The Recital Hall was almost full that evening with a robust mix of students, faculty, parents, and alumni, Kelly said. Unlike last year, in attendance were also many of Kelly’s Ethics students and members of the Ethics Club who were eager to hear from Appiah.
Appiah began the event by considering what it means to be cosmopolitan, which led to a discussion–moderated by Princeton University professor Julian E. Zelizer P ’20, P ’22–about how to engage in productive conversations with those who have different opinions on a given topic. “There was a very interesting approach to thinking about free speech, not just as rights that are enshrined in a constitution, but also considering the history of communicating with people who are different from you and have different ideas,” History teacher Dr. Elisa Milkes said. Thinking about free speech in a more philosophical sense was a new perspective for Milkes, which she hopes to incorporate in her class discussions.
Appiah’s approachable nature and numerous accomplishments in the field made him the ideal speaker to start this year’s series on Free Speech and to encourage students to consider how they use their voices. “Appiah has a cool, easy vibe to how he approaches freedom of expression and, more importantly, the relationships we share and how little we’d learn from each other and the world around us within a bubble of censorship–government-directed or self-imposed,” Kelly said.
Kelly began this series last year with the help of the administration and Board of Trustees, hosting Floyd Abrams, a well-recognized legal scholar on free speech, as their first speaker. The goal of this Conversation Series is to teach students, faculty, and parents how to grapple with the daily nuances of the First Amendment in the world around us, he said. “Having spent more time on the topic of freedom of expression with students enrolled in Ethics, I thought it only appropriate to make an effort to engage the broader community in the conversation, too.”
In addition to members of Kelly’s Ethics class, students in the school’s Ethics Club attended the event as a group. Most of the members were already familiar with Appiah’s work in the field and were eager to engage with him in conversation, Ethics Club President Ethan Furman (11) said. “Kwame Anthony Appiah is one of the greatest living Ethical minds, and he writes his weekly column for the New York Times that a lot of people in the club read regularly,” he said. In preparation for the discussion, the Ethics Club held a group dinner to discuss Appiah’s career and writing.
During the event, Appiah’s discussion shifted to how to respect others’ perspectives, even when it may seem counterproductive. For example, a student posed the question of whether or not it is important or necessary to engage with views that may seem morally repugnant when discussing LGBTQIA+ rights, Dean of Faculty Dr. Andrew Fippinger said. “The gist of Appiah’s answer was that it is important for people to engage with all kinds of views and to understand what motivates people who hold opinions one may find ‘wrong-headed,’ but that we can each choose how and how much to engage or whether we want to engage at all’’ he said.
The speaker also dove into ideological differences in the political world today and how to face them with respect, Furman said. “[Appiah] made a really strong point about being able to separate people from their political views, and being able to be friends with people even if they have political views you may think are completely nonsensical or hurtful.”
Kelly will host three more events over the course of the year, the next in early November featuring former president of the American Civil Liberties Union Nadine Strossen. “For a topic as complex as free speech, it’s important to hear a range of voices, so we also need to remember that this was one speaker in an ongoing series,” Fippinger said. “I hope that people are able to attend multiple events in order to hear different perspectives and different styles of intellectual engagement.”
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