Essay Example on Identity: A Philosophical Analysis of Its Concepts and Relations

Introduction

Identity is a very crucial subject in the life of every individual. It determines the way a person is going to live and interact with other people in a complex society. It is an important subject in Philosophy as it contributes towards an understanding of other concepts of identity is rooted in psychology and the social sciences. This essay is an analysis of concepts of philosophy concerned with identity and relation. It describes the major philosophical problems that arise with the study of identity, the sociological notions of identity that involve a person's mode of behavior in a setup environment and the views of development. Identity in Philosophy has been defined as sameness and relation that one thing has to itself. It is the expressions of objects, in an attempt to understand the unsolved philosophical problems. Identity in philosophy gives rise to a closer understanding of many problems of the philosophy that are unknown. An example of the unsolved philosophical problems is the ones trying to explain the essence of life, its origin, and the source. It is categorized into, metaphysics, aesthetics, philosophy of language, epistemology, ethics, philosophy of mathematics and the philosophy of mind (Pernecky &Thomas). Essentialism is an idea of arts that any medium has both weaknesses and strengths, on its way of communication. This aspect is seen in visible picture motion of movies and the imagery used in poetry. It is a central component of identity as it gives the artists a basis of developing criteria to be used in the evaluation of an art

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The philosophy of language

This category is composed of a sub-category named counterfactuals. The counterfactuals imply to a condition that has counterfactual antecedents. An example of a counterfactual statement is a sentence "If the Wright brothers had not invented a plane, somebody else would have done so". The fact in the sentence is that the Wright brothers invented the plane. An ontology which is a sub-branch of metaphysics has a paradox called the Ship of Theseus paradox originating from the classical paradox. There is a tale of the ship of Theseus, made of almost a hundred parts. There was a common correspondence storage room at the center of the Ship that enabled it to carry repair materials during voyages. It went out on a voyage of waters infested with monsters (Lester, Frank &Diana, pp415-425). Every part of the ship was being destroyed and had to be replaced. By the time of the completion of the voyage, no part had not been replaced. There was a question raised about whether the ship still belonged to Theseus any longer or not. The people considering yes as the answer, are challenged considering the parts of the ship that had to be reconstructed. They, however, have a point as the voyage, and the ship crew never changed. The paradox is almost similar to the sorites paradox but has several varieties.

Metaphysics

There are several questions related to identity that have been asked by metaphysicians. Metaphysicians are the philosophers interested in the study of language and the mind (Drayson & Zoe, pp367-377). The first question seeks to discover the meaning of an object being the same as itself. They seek to weather x and y should necessarily be identical given x is identical to y. Metaphysicians want to discover the meaning of an object being the same even if it is a subject of continuous constant change. Finally, they seek to understand the possibility of an object to remain the same, even after continuous replacement of its part over time. There are several laws of identity that are claimed to have originated from the classical antiquity. Identity formulation in the modern world results from Gottfried Leibniz, who asserted that x is equal to y if only the predicates that are true to x are also true. This led to the development of calculus is as a result of Leibniz's idea, which is the basic root of the mathematical philosophy. Mathematics philosophy sets aside the difference between identity and equality, making equations that have similar values the only identity in mathematics. Hegel was a researcher in philosophy of mathematics and argues that things and objects are inherently different and the only way of identifying the identity is by categorizing them into groups as either, identical and non-identical (Drayson & Zoe, pp367-377). The modern metaphysics have a new way of viewing the arguments. The trans-world identity, where there is a possibility of the same objects existing in different possible worlds. Counterpart theory states the same notion in the counterpart relation. It rejects the trans-world persons but objects.

The Philosophy of mind

Another category of identity in philosophy is the identity of the mind and the mental model that defines the uniqueness among individuals. Identity is formed through several aspects. It is indirectly acquired through peers, parents a people considered as role models. Identity is influenced by the social roles that are available to an individual and the need to fit in the roles. Identity plays an important role in the life of an individual, by instilling in an individual a sense of development and purpose increasing the chances of a person ever accomplishing personal goals in the future. There are several forms of identity in philosophy(Strohminger, Nina &Shaun,pp1469-1479). The most common types of identity are personal, religion spiritual, age and national identities. Personal identity refers to the concepts of development that a person performs for their benefit. They also include developments that a person cannot control such as skin color and choices in life. The portion of personal identity is seen manifested outwardly through the interaction with people while some are kept hidden.The history of understanding personal identity dates back to the age of critical thinkers and philosophers who were constantly seeking to understand the nature of human beings, about their questioning of themselves about their current status of living and future expectations. According to the philosophers, whenever a person, thinks about his identity by tracing their origin back to their times as babies, it is referred to as a persistence context. Persistence is a proven existence of an individual across time(Hogg, Michael, Deborah, Terry&Katherine,pp255-269). The philosophers believed that there exists a soul which is an essence that cannot be limited by time and space and can persist even after death. Renes Descartes, a French philosopher provided a scientific view of the issue, and in his rational argument, demonstrated that the body and the and mind of individual functions separately. Descartes promoted a view named body-mind dualism that explained the existence and the persistence of the mind even in the absence of the body.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Identity is a wide discipline in philosophy. It tries to provide a solution to several unsolved problems through logical means. The cognitive, mathematical, and the language aspects of identity personal identity slowly develops, depending on the directions that choose to take, and is greatly affected by the culture and the language of the people and the religion. The elements of identity are affected by interactions with people's culture and their way of viewing life generally.

Works Cited

Strohminger, Nina, and Shaun Nichols. "Neurodegeneration and identity." Psychological Science 26.9 (2015): 1469-1479. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0191453713494969

Perney, Tomas. Epistemology and metaphysics for qualitative research. Sage, https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Y1-wDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Tomas+Pernecky++In+Epistemology+and+Metaphysics+for+Qualitative+Research+%7C+Published:+2016&ots=TWqQ5wF6QY&sig=L_L-tCRvMkFdjVaZioIMwesqb6w 2016.

Lester, Frank K., and Diana V. Lambdin. "The ship of Theseus and other metaphors for thinking about what we value in mathematics education research." Mathematics education as a research domain: A search for identity. Springer, Dordrecht, 1998. 415-425. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-011-5196-2_13

Drayson, Zoe. "Extended cognition and the metaphysics of mind." Cognitive Systems Research 11.4 (2010): 367-377. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389041710000379

Hogg, Michael A., Deborah J. Terry, and Katherine M. White. "A tale of two theories: A critical comparison of identity theory with social identity theory." Social psychology quarterly (1995): 255-269. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2787127