Personal Statement : Personal Identity

Currently, I am in the process of not only becoming comfortable in my identity, a black queer woman, but, also attempting to find solace in my identity as well. Something that all women, especially black queer women, should achieve in their lifetime. It is that dream that inspires me to travel to experience other cultures and to unite with women from various cultures across the black diaspora. Throughout many cultures, women’s identities are defined by their male counterparts and the labor they provide to them. Therefore, a major goal of mine is to create a space where women are able to exist outside the scope of their relationships with men and live uninhibitedly to become their best selves. That is why I find it pertinent to travel not only

With given a choice of what to write this paper, I could not get past the subtle nature of who we are as God’s creations. This fundamental truth of our identity is simplified with the truth of our identity in Jesus. We are created in God’s image with a purpose here on earth to display all of God’s greatness, His beauty, and to reveal all of His character aspects. Best of all, we are completely dependent on God. This new enlightenment of my identity in Christ as God’s creation will allow me to help people around the world become one with Christ by revealing the truth of their identity.

Fortunately, however, Descartes succeeds in determining one thing of which he can be certain. No matter how much he doubts, he can be certain of the fact that he is thinking, for the doubting is itself an affirmation of his thought. So he can be certain that he is at least a thing that thinks. Hence, the concept, "I think, therefore I am" is established in these ruminations.

Personal identity is a very controversial aspect of life. Who are we? What defines us? According to John Locke, psychological continuity is what defines our personal identity. Locke discusses the case of the prince and the cobbler to help shape his theory. However, I absolutely disagree with Locke’s theory. Locke’s theory of personal identity creates many problems, such as the duplication problem. By reformulating Locke’s theory of personal identity, we still come across these problems that prove Locke’s theory false.

A person’s identity is shaped by many different aspects. Family, culture, friends, personal interests and surrounding environments are all factors that tend to help shape 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. Personal interests are what truly set individuals apart. An individual is not a puppet

Locke argues that we cannot compare something until we have an idea of what category the thing being discussed will the placed under. He elaborates on this notion and argues that asking whether something is the same or not is very blunt and open. When asking a question about sameness, one could ask, "Is Professor Checkland the same person as he was five years ago?" instead of "Is Professor Checkland the same as five years ago?" The latter question is not acceptable, according to Locke, because there is no category under which Professor Checkland is being judged upon. The former, however, implies that Professor Checkland is being judged on the basis of whether he is the same person as he was five years prior.

He cannot say that God exists, because there remains the possibility that his thoughts are in fact originating from himself (in which case there would be no need for God). Since he has abandoned all notions of existence and certainty, which includes his own body and senses, is it possible that he himself does not exist? To think a thought is bound to existence by definition; one must exist first before having the ability to think. Even if an all-powerful deceiver made it so that I do not exist, it would generate a contradiction since I cannot think that I exists if I don't. (25) Thinking about existing requires existence as a prerequisite. Descartes has arrived at his first truly tangible and useful element of truth: that it is necessarily true that he exists.

He then avows the possibility that at any moment he could be dreaming, or his senses could be deceived by either God or an evil demon which leads him to conclude that he cannot trust his senses to any extent. Ultimately, however he comes to realize that he cannot doubt his own existence because in order to even doubt or think, there must be someone doing the thinking or doubting. Due to the fact that his existence derives from the fact that he is thinking, Descartes concludes with the Cogito principle. This is one of Descartes major arguments for our existence “Since I only can be certain of the existence of myself and that I’m thinking, I have knowledge of my existence only as a thinking

To be an American is to have traits of freedom the thing that the founding fathers counted on is to have the will to speak freely and to have the will of religion in the constitution it say that every citizen should have life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This impacts and brings everyone from different places to help create a society that is free. The founding fathers also counted for the people to speak for what is right. The reason is because this helps out on what the people want instead of the government wants this goes to show that the people matter and that is what makes a person happy and also makes a person feel like they have the pursuit to be happy.

Who are you? What defines who you are? Why makes you who you are? What is your personal identity? Have you ever sat around pondering the meaning of life, or maybe just your life? Have you asked yourself any of these questions? What were your answers? These are questions that people have been trying to answer since the beginning of time, before me and you were ever born or thought of. People live their whole lives trying to figure out exactly who they are and what their purpose is in life. In the field of philosophy, many philosophers have had theories on personal identity and a person’s “self.” These people have gone down in history books for their theories on a person’s identity: John Locke and Rene’ Descartes. These are two of the most

Rene Descartes is a modern French philosopher, who is famous for his line, “I think, therefore I am.” The meaning of this quote is that he must exist because he has the ability to think. In Descartes most famous work, The Meditations, he starts off by doubting everything, which is known as the Method of Doubt. He believes that our senses are always deceiving us in some way and so our senses are unreliable in proving anything. By this, he means that when we use our senses, such as our vision, to look at something, the way that the object looks from afar is different from the way it looks upfront, thus, deceiving us. However, Descartes

Locke believes that the only we you can truly be a person, is if you have memories of being that person. He also states that if a person switches memories, than their identity switches as well. Whereas Locke relies completely on memory, Descartes relies on logic. He spent many years just thinking and realized that if he is thinking, therefore he is actually alive and real. While they both agree that people rightly are, they believe that different things prove

In his Meditations, one feels that Descartes is sitting around pondering ideas, and becomes aware that he's being aware. He is interested in this state of awareness, and notices he's thinking about something or another. He believes or hypothesizes that either God Is (existing), and is Good, hence would not deceive him; a bad force or entity might be trying to trick him; in either case he, Descartes, is thinking. He believes he has some control over what he thinks; thus, God is not fooling him and an evil force is not controlling him. So Descartes asserts, if one thinks, one has to be somebody to be thinking, so one exists. This conclusion is brought up through a process known as radical questioning or radical doubting; Descartes is trying to find something that cannot be found doubtful. He decides he is (exists), and that he is neither influenced totally by either God or a malevolent force. But how does Descartes reach these conclusions?

Philosophers over time have tried to explain their understanding on the view of personal identity some of the like Rene Descartes adding the views of the existence of the material souls or egos. His views on the existence of egos suggest that people have bodies which can die but still they continue to exist. In as such other philosophers proposed diverging views from him suggesting that such a simple

Metaphysical studies of the self and personal identity were near non-existent prior to René Descartes’ “Meditations on First Philosophy”. While “Meditations” was not written with the main focus on personal identity, Descartes makes assertions regarding the subject through the possessive voice. Most of the assertions regarding personal identity materialize in Mediations two and six. By using “I” in his essay, his epistemological paper is turned into a paper that also concerns self, consciousness, and identity. A writer that focuses more specifically on personal identity in his book titled “Concerning Human Understanding” is John Locke. The twenty seventh chapter in book two of Concerning Human understanding has a very explicit focus on