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Kwame Appiah: Relationship Between Recognition And Individual Identity

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Education reflects the values, principles, and identities of a society. But to fully understand the current system we are in, one must dissect into the emergence of such values. Social existence is the ground for identity. The individual and their self-identification is formed through a dialogical lifestyle – one that adapts and transforms from its experiences and environments. Because of this malleability, recognition plays a huge part in the self-identification and development of the individual. Each of these singular identities form into similar groups composing a greater collective identity, who is in turn developed by recognition. This relationship between recognition and individuality interacts with and changes with existing social collectives – which society as a whole reacts to.

Identity is an innate sense of self – and quite frankly, humans are …show more content…

These categories are in themselves collective crowds that demand a kind of recognition that comes after the individual sphere. The authenticity of individuals lie within the need for recognition as a group; rather said, overall identity is a component of its collective dimension. Appiah explains this theory by using himself as an example. As an African-American man he seeks recognition of an African-American identity. For “…recognition as an African-American means social acknowledgment of that collective identity, which requires not just recognizing its existence but actually demonstrating respect for it.” (Appiah 153) Recognition does not mean simply distinguishing differences, but rather furthers a notion of respect and value of the cultural identity. These groups authenticity demand for recognition and value in the expression of what they centrally are. Minorities fight out for their differences to be put on the same plain as the characteristics of the

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