Identity Formation

Identity Formation: What makes us who we are?"

We have some notion of who we are and who other people are, namely our own identity and the identity of other people. When and how does that form? How does it change over time? Why am I me and not someone else?

You might have heard of the teletransport paradox. Suppose we had a device that could move you from A to B by recreating you atom by atom at B and getting rid of the original at A. Would the person at the destination still be you?

The philosophy of identity raises questions about physical and psychological continuity, social versus self-determination, the notion of a fixed core/soul, and much more.

Am I still the same person?
What, if anything, holds together as we change, and whether memory is the thread running through it all.
- What roles does memory play in our identity?
- What happens when we lose our memory?
- At what point, if any, do we become a different person?
- How much do we actually change over time?
- Is there some core part of us that roughly stays the same no matter what?

Do I need a body to be me?
Whether the self is bound to this particular body, or could carry on in some other form.
- Does our identity depend on a physical body?
- What would happen if a technology allowed us to upload our consciousness to a digital environment?

What made me who I am?
How much of us is chosen, how much inherited, and how much simply the luck of what happened to us.
- How much can we influence who we are?
- How much do random events determine who we are?
- What role do genetics and environment play?

Where do I belong?
How the families, cultures, and groups we're part of become part of us.
- How much of our identity is given to us by family, culture, nation, language, or generation?
- Can we choose our group belongings, or are some simply assigned to us?
- What happens to identity when we leave a group, whether through migration, exile, conversion, or estrangement?
- Is there a tension between who we are as individuals and who we are as members?
- Can a "we" have an identity in the way an "I" does?

Who am I to other people?
Whether we are who we are on our own, or only in relation to the people around us.
- Does having an identity depend on separation from others?
- How does that relate to the desire for unity and harmony?
- How much do we identify ourselves with other people's perception of us?
- And vice versa: how much do we define others by our perception of them?

Which one is the real me?
We show up so differently across contexts. Is there one true self underneath, or many?
- We act differently in positions of power, when anonymous online, when angry, or when alone. Can we have multiple identities?
- If so, which one is the "real" one?
- Can we argue for an identity that covers all of our identities?
- Can we ever experience our whole selves?

Do I really know myself?
The distance between who we are, who we think we are, and who we wish to be.
- What does it mean to be "true to ourselves," and is there a settled self there to be true to?
- Can we be wrong about who we are, and how much of ourselves is hidden from us?
- Is there tension between the person we are and the person we want to become?
- Can other people know us better than we know ourselves?
- Is self-deception a failure of identity, or part of how identity ordinarily works?