Philosophy of Identity
In metaphysics, identity (from Latin: identitas, “sameness”) is the relation each thing bears only to itself. The notion of identity gives rise to many philosophical problems, including the identity of indiscernibles (if x and y share all their properties, are they one and the same thing?), and questions about change and personal identity over time (what has to be the case for a person x at one time and a person y at a later time to be one and the same person?). It is important to distinguish between qualitative identity and numerical identity. For example, consider two children with identical bicycles engaged in a race while their mother is watching. The two children have the same bicycle in one sense (qualitative identity) and the same mother in another sense (numerical identity). This article is mainly concerned with numerical identity, which is the stricter notion.
The philosophical concept of identity is distinct from the better-known notion of identity in use in psychology and the social sciences. The philosophical concept concerns a relation, specifically, a relation that x and y stand in if, and only if they are one and the same thing, or identical to each other (i.e. if, and only if x = y). The sociological notion of identity, by contrast, has to do with a person’s self-conception, social presentation, and more generally, the aspects of a person that make them unique, or qualitatively different from others (e.g. cultural identity, gender identity, national identity, online identity, and processes of identity formation). Lately, identity has been conceptualized considering humans’ position within the ecological web of life; this combination of sociocultural and ecological identification is known as ecocultural identity.
Identity in metaphysics is the philosophical study of what makes a thing itself and how it remains the same over time and through change, distinguishing between numerical identity (being one and the same thing) and qualitative identity (sharing the same properties). The core question explores the essential properties that define an entity, especially a person, and is often investigated through thought experiments like the Ship of Theseus, posing challenges to standard theories of persistence through physical or psychological connections.
Numerical vs. Qualitative Identity
- Numerical Identity: This is the strict sense of identity, where two things are one and the same entity (e.g., the morning star and the evening star are numerically identical).
- Qualitative Identity: This refers to having the same properties, even if they are different things (e.g., two identical bicycles are qualitatively identical but numerically distinct).
Personal Identity
- This subfield of metaphysics asks what makes a person the same individual over time, considering changes in physical form, mental states, and memories.
- Key Questions: When did “you” begin? What happens to “you” after death? What makes you the same person you were as a child?
Problems and Theories
- The Ship of Theseus: A classic thought experiment questioning whether a ship is still the same after all its original parts have been replaced over time.
- Physical Continuity: Some theories suggest identity is preserved by the persistence of the same body.
- Psychological Continuity: Other theories emphasize continuous memories and psychological connections (like a chain mail) as the basis for personal identity, as proposed by Derek Parfit.
- Narrative Identity: The idea that identity is built through the stories we tell about ourselves, our goals, and our values, as championed by Daniel Dennett and Alasdair MacIntyre.
Why It Matters
- Moral and Legal Responsibility: Our concepts of justice and accountability depend on the idea of a stable, persisting individual identity. [3, 4]
- Existential Questions: It delves into fundamental questions about who we are, our sense of self, and our place in the world. [2, 6]
AI responses may include mistakes.
[1] wikipedia/en/Identity_(philosophy)
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/li0wcn/metaphysics_of_identity/
[5] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity/
[6] https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity-personal/
[7] https://www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/comments/3xusc9/metaphysics_john_locke_and_the_problem_of/
[8] https://ftp.oshatrain.org/uploaded-files/6P8059/index.jsp/TheFundamentalConceptsOfMetaphysics.pdf
[12] https://philosophynow.org/issues/97/A_Philosophical_Identity_Crisis