What is identity, and what does it mean for us? This article is an exploration of a core concept that connects us all, attempting to understand what it means in our day to day life.
What is identity? Is identity what we were born with, or is it a projection of what we’ve learned, seen, and understood? It seems to me that we aren’t always the same person. We behave differently depending on various contexts. However, would it be right to say, instead, that our behaviour shapes our identity? It is a confusing dilemma, as one could argue that identity is an internal construct, completely independent of how a person behaves. In other words, the way a person behaves is guided by their identity, not determined by it.
But we are still at square one. What, exactly, is identity? I believe that identity is what makes us all unique, a rather generic and widely accepted definition of this core social construct. Still, in this definition, we only arrive at a descriptor of the purpose identity serves—making us all unique—and I find myself still not quite understanding what identity is. For instance, an apple can be defined. It is a fruit. It is a food. In this sense, that is the apple’s identity. However, how does this apply to distinguish among complex organisms, such as humans? Why am I different from the person next to me? What is different about my identity that is not seen in this person?
Can our identity be a manifestation of our mind, a series of electrical reactions that determine how we think and act? This definition feels too disconnected and robotic to me. It is a definition I would associate with machines or with Artificial Intelligence. It is not satisfactory enough to me to be an adequate depiction of the human experience, in all its uniqueness. What, exactly, is causing us to think and act in the way we do? I can answer that question simply by saying identity, but then I arrive at the conflict of not knowing what an identity is. I believe it is too simple a definition to be attributed to the complex signalling in the brain, and even if we imagine that it is, then we must ask ourselves, what controls that signalling, and why does it happen?
Identity, although a social construct, has a strong connection to biology, and to life. We are who we are because of our ability to “be”, and we are able to “be” because of our biology, in my opinion. Identity is difficult to define because it is not a tangible definition. It is something we know with certainty but describe with skepticism because what identity means is different from person to person. Ironically, we are all united, however, in having identities, despite how different those identities may be.
So, is identity a way of thinking? Or is it instead a way of being? Are the two mutually exclusive? I’d imagine that thinking and being are closely tied together, and are not completely independent of one another—as most things in life are. Keeping this idea in mind, I do believe that one can’t think without “being” and one can’t “be” without thinking. It is almost a paradoxical relationship, as both states can be defined individually, yet still be unable to exist without the other’s influence. But life is a paradox. People die, people are born. The same person who is happy has as much capability to be sad. War and peace. Famine and over-consumption. Everywhere we look, two sides of the same coin are co-existing. That is the way of our world, and that is how life has been going for centuries. Why should our identity be any different?