Personal Identity versus Self-Identity

Perspectives on Personal Identity

In The Rise and Fall of Soul and Self, Raymond Martin and John Barresi suggest that theories of personal identity can be traced to the 5th century BCE. Even though the idea of personal identity has a rich history, there is no generally agreed-upon definition or any consensus about what constitutes personal identity for scholars. Some identity scholars identify personal identity with individual autonomy, but others believe that values determine one's personal identity.

At the most basic level, personal identity can be defined as a self-description of highly specific details and experiences. Personal identity can also be defined as a set of traits and characteristics that are assigned to a particular person. Conventional definitions of personal identity, such as those offered by scholar Erving Goffman, suggest that personal identity is concerned with what makes an individual distinct from other individuals. When viewed in this way, personal identity is tied to individual autonomy and the values, qualities, attributes, and personality characteristics that make the individual unique. A more philosophical rendering is offered by Peter Unger, who defines personal identity as the philosophy of our own strict survival.

Some of the earliest philosophical questions related to personal identity center on what makes it possible to persist over time and through changes. For example, scholars such as Unger are interested in what is involved when a person survives from the present time to some future time. Another question that has emerged relates to the possibility of establishing a set of criteria or conditions that define personal identity and allow a person to persist from one time to another. A third question that has emerged is whether a list of conditions or characteristics can be used to define a person's personal identity. Differing perspectives have emerged that attempt to address these three [Page 546]similar, yet slightly different, central questions. Scholars differ on what constitutes a personal identity and how the identity persists over time and through changes. For example, scholars disagree whether personal identity should be connected to psychological or bodily criterion and the specific conditions that constitute personal identity. Scholars also disagree about whether there is a sense of consistency over time or whether personal identities are always evolving.

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