The idea of global citizenship: scholars debate notions of identity and tolerance at Secretary-General's Lecture.

• Author: Gorelick, Melissa

IN THIS RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD, concepts of human identity can be a seismically divisive force. Across some of the most hostile divides-religious wars, ethnic clashes-those on either sides too often identify themselves exclusively with a particular group. They believe that they hold dear values that the "other" does not. And, at the great peril of the world community, many still continue to struggle to prove that their views are unequivocally right.

But a shared human identity can also be a powerful unifier. On 5 June 2006, renowned scholars Kwame Anthony Appiah and Amartya Sen were invited to explore the topic of "Identity in the 21st Century" in the latest Secretary-General's Lecture Series. Following in the tradition of the Series that has hosted such premier intellectual figures as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Toni Morrison, Mr. Sen and Mr. Appiah discussed their visions of human identity and their hopes for tolerance in the next century. The lecture hall resounded with the joint theme of their prominent recent work: as easily as human identity can drive people apart, it can help them navigate their differences through an abruptly shrinking world.

Mr. Sen, a Nobel Laureate in economics, whose many works include his most recent book, Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny, described the endless corridors through which a single human identity wanders. At the same moment, one can be a United States citizen of "Asian background, of Indo-Chinese origins, with Vietnamese ancestry. A Christian. A liberal. A woman. A vegetarian ... A theatre-lover. An environmental activist. A jazz musician ..." and so on, he said, with endless links to others all over the globe. Each categorization aligns a person with some fellow humans and creates distance from others. But taken as a whole, he stressed that a multifaceted understanding of one's own identity can bridge the gaps that divide us and create networks of understanding. Conversely, a singular overarching system of categorization can pit individuals against each other.

Besides overstating the importance of a single identity factor, such as religion or national allegiance, humans have a tendency to exaggerate the homogeneity of a group, said Mr. Appiah. A philosopher and professor at Princeton University, he has written extensively on the meaning of culture. He pointed out that it is naive and wrong-headed to think that all Muslims, for example, are exactly the same, when in fact they span many...