Identity Crisises, Who Am I? : Between Will to Power And Won't to Power
Details
Greetings,
Modern society is flooded with Identity crises, may that be personal identity or cultural identity or even national identity. What is identity? Does identity ever change? If it naturally goes through some changes, does it still retain the same identity?
There is a notorious philosophical paradox of identity, known as Theseus's Ship.
“As the story goes, Theseus, the mythical king and founder of Athens, had killed the evil Minotaur in Crete and then returned home on a ship. To honour this heroic victory, the Athenians preserved the ship in the marketplace for thousands of years and re-enacted his voyage every year. Whenever a part of the ship wore out or was destroyed, it was replaced with an identical piece made of the same material, until eventually no original parts remained. Plutarch noted that the ship of Theseus is an example of a philosophical paradox concerning the persistence of identity.”
Here is also a quote from Nietzsche I think captures some interesting aspect of Will to Power.
“To those human beings who are of any concern to me I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities—I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, the wretchedness of the vanquished: I have no pity for them, because I wish them the only thing that can prove today whether one is worth anything or not—that one endures.”
[Questions]
- How should we define identity if the very thing or person of identity undergoes some inevitable changes?
- What are the constituent factors for forming identity?
- Jordan Peterson views the current Identity Crisis among young adolescents and the young adult generation as a "delayed dramatic play", which should occur during the preschool age. He believes that it is a way of escaping an oppressive family environment. Do you agree?
- Nietzsche's concept of Will to Power can be interpreted in multiple ways, but one of the mainstream interpretations can be "affirmative action and willingness to follow one's own authentic desire. Can Will to Power alone promote a sustainable, meaningful identity foundation?
- What do you think Won't to Power possibly means?
- Jordan Peterson's therapeutic approach to building one's own identity is to ask some self-reflective questions. Do you think it can help to overcome identity crises?
"Ask yourself, caring for yourself as if you are valuable,
If you could have what you needed and wanted, in a manner that is best for you, what would that look like?"
Online Venue : n/a
Offline Venue : New Venue (Cafe Pieno)
[Socrates Cafe_Group Chat] :
https://open.kakao.com/o/gcvmaI0d
[Some optional watch]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ1ogiqjVDE&ab_channel=JordanBPetersonClips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHwVyplU3Pg&ab_channel=TED-Ed
Identity Crisises, Who Am I? : Between Will to Power And Won't to Power