“The Mystery of Personal Identity in Western Thought”

Abstract

Abstract

Identity is one of the most elusive terms in common parlance. We think we know how to define it: it is sameness in difference, psychologists say. However, when we try to pinpoint one’s personal identity, we encounter a multitude of problems. If we set aside various categorizations by renowned psychologists and thinkers, we wonder whether it is thought, affectivity, or action, whether it is what we think about ourselves or what others think of us mainly on the bases of what we say or do. On the other hand, cultural identity is an umbrella that, while trying to “fix” its objects, betrays our failure to determine personal identity with any degree of accuracy. And literature never tires of dramatizing these observations, that identity is ever-evolving, ever-changing entity, that it is often hidden, consciously or unconsciously, especially due to the demands of “civilization.”