Personal Identity: Who are you? By: Ronald F. White, PhD.

     Philosophers have long debated the question of "personal identity." Is there one single set of characteristics that comprise your identity? Or is your identity relative to the perceptions of other persons and/or other groups of persons. Was your identity established at birth or has it evolved over time?  Is your identity the product of your body (genes) or your mind (ideas)?  Is your identity contained in your conscious mind and memory via introspection, or in the minds, consciousness, and memories of  other persons? How much control do you have over your identity?  Are you the same person you were 10-30 years ago? Obviously, our bodies change over time...at the cellular level, therefore (strictly speaking) our bodies constantly change. Some bodily features are the product of growth: height, weight etc. Others are age-related such as mobility, memory etc. Do you identify yourself based on your job (professor of philosophy) or job status (retired)? Family status (husband, father, grand-father, uncle, cousin)? Where you attended high school (West Genesee High School), college (Eastern Kentucky University), graduate school (University of Kentucky)? Do you identify yourself based on your hobbies (guitar player)? Do you identity yourself based on racial (white) and/or ethnic background (Italian/English)? Gender (male)? Has your personal identity been shaped by religion, if so how has it changed over time? Is your identity completely contextual... based on time and place. To what degree are the various components of your personal identity harmonious and/or conflicting? If your identity has changed over time, have those changes evolved slowly, or have they been fast-paced and revolutionary? Are there events in human life that tend to be especially prone to personal revolutionary influence: marriage, birth of children, disease (Covid-19), death of friends/family/pets?    

    How has the widespread access to "social media" affected your personal identity,  the identity of friends, acquaintances, and/or strangers? To what degree is the ability to manipulate social media linked to socioeconomic success or failure of various professionals: doctors, lawyers, policemen, firemen, teachers, professional athletes, other television personalities? And finally, how has  the fact that much of the social media and the technologies that have evolved over time are corporations affected American life in general? How has corporate media reshaped democratic politics? Why is identity politics in the United States still dominated by old, rich, white men. How much of this dominance can be attributed to longstanding institutions that were initially shaped by old, rich, white men? 

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