What Personal Identity Means to Me

Personal identity is the persistent and continuous view humans have of themselves which evolves and develops throughout the course of life. This may include aspects of your life that you have no control over, such as where you grew up or the color of your skin, as well as the choices you make in life, such as how you spend your time and what you believe in. You demonstrate portions of your personal identity outwardly through what you wear and how you interact with other people. You may also keep some elements of your personal identity to yourself, even when these parts of yourself are very important.

Before taking this course, I often struggled with the simple question, ‘Who am I?’ and thought a lot about who I might become in the future, as well as the amount of personal control I have over these questions. These uncertainties have been thought about and discussed throughout history, in particular by philosophers who have immersed themselves in the search for knowledge about the nature of being human. Most people feel they want to endure in some way, both in their lives and beyond death. The philosophy of personal identity aims to address these matters of existence and how we even know we exist through time. How do you know you were the same person as you were as a child? Is it because you remember yourself growing within the same body you have now? Or is it because you have the same mind? What criteria can be used to confirm you are, in fact, a ‘person’? When you ask yourself how you know you are the same person you were as a baby, this is a question of persistence. In other words, we perceive that our self ‘persists’ through our life as the same human being. The philosophers Plato and Descartes, as well as many religions, have proposed we persist because we have a soul, a timeless essence that continues in some form even after the death of our living, breathing human body. I agree with this view, which had a heavy impact in shaping the way I look at people today.

In my opinion, a person’s personal identity does evolve and grow and change throughout their life, as they do. But there is a difference between who you identify as vs. the person you are. You are still the same you you were when you were born, housing the same mind and soul in the same body. Although, the mind, soul and body go through incredible existential changes during this time. Your opinions and attitudes on particular topics may change, and your body becomes almost unrecognizable, yet you are still the same human you were at birth. A person’s identity, though, is shaped by many different aspects. Family, friends, personal interests, cultures, and surrounding environments are all factors that aid in shaping a person’s identity. Some factors may have more of an influence than others and some may not have any influence at all. As a person grows up in a family, they are influenced by many aspects of their life. Family and culture may influence a person’s sense of responsibilities, ethics and morals, tastes in music, humor and sports, and many other aspects of life. Friends and surrounding environments may influence a person’s taste in clothing, music, speech, and social activities. Although these things have a heavy influence on who we are and how others see us, personal identity has also made me realize that there are a lot of features to people that they have no control over, and to not judge people based on these factors.