Ways Of Knowing In Adrian Piper's 'Challenging Our Beliefs'

In his 1971 paper “Personal Identity”, Derek Parfit posits that it is possible and indeed desirable to free important questions from presuppositions about personal identity without losing all that matters. In working out how to do so, Parfit comes to the conclusion that “the question about identity has no importance” (Parfit, 1971, p. 4.2:3). In this essay, I will attempt to show that Parfit’s thesis is a valid one, with positive implications for human behaviour. The first section of the essay will examine the thesis in further detail and the second will assess how Parfit’s claims fare in the face of criticism.

Ideologies not only influence our values, but also “our interpretation of the world and how people interact” (Connolly & Harms, 2013, p.8).

Have you ever had a feeling of doubt? In the play Doubt by John Patrick Shanley the reader is left with a lot of doubt because Father Flynn, one of the main characters, is being persecuted for sexually harassing a young boy in his class. In this play a pastor by the name of Father Flynn is being investigated because Sister Aloysius is suspicious that he has been sexually harassing a young boy by the name of Donald in their school. Based on the evidence in Patrick Shanley’s play, Doubt: A Parable, I conclude that Father Flynn is not guilty, because Sister A does not like Flynn and Sister A doubts all of her wrong doings after all of this commotion. There are also a lot of small reasons why he should be not guilty.

“Being authentic means something like living in accordance with one’s own unique values and ideals,” but it is greater than simply being oneself, it is “resisting the imposition of the values and ideals of others” (Pierce 441) as well. Therefore, authenticity is also neglecting to succumb to the beliefs of others to stay true to one’s own beliefs. However, this does not mean that authenticity is static, “an individual should engage in a process of constructing his personhood…. His task in life becomes searching for his true personhood” (381). Personhood should be a journey of finding oneself, figuring out who one is and what one believes in. The act of evolving is part of the discovery, but when “their acts are guided by other people’s ideas of who they should be” (379) it leads to inauthenticity because the change is made solely to fit in. All in all, authenticity is based heavily on truth, because “[it]

A major part of one’s identity involves a system of morals and beliefs which are too influenced though one’s culture and experiences in life. The

John Shanley’s “ Doubt” is a story illustrating a nun concern over a priest suspicious behavior inside the church. The nun sister Aloysodid is worried about the problem not being fixed as it can cause more problem s in the future. Sister Aloysius is determining to solve the problem but the priest Father Flynn is not being corrapertive to solve the problem. In the story we learn sister alyonsis cannot solve the problem by herself because of her ranking in the church. Father Flynn is uncomfortable because he has been open with the boys and is nervous of Sister Aloysius.

In philosophy, the issue of personal identity concerns the conditions under which a person at one time is the same person at another time. An analysis of personal identity

The world has become modern and global. Identification of the self is a complicated, though, an important problem of every individual. Self- identity is based on inner values and reflections on culture, politics and social interactions. The main point is that people label themselves to any particular group in the society (Worchel etc., 1998). According to Ferguson: “Identity commonly refers to which it makes, or is thought to make

Ideology works by masking the social problems and contradictions just like what people generally think the forest should

As humans, do we consciously form our own identities? After all, one is rarely who they aspire to be. Take, for example, John Gardner’s character Grendel. Although Grendel seems to intentionally perpetuate his wretched state of being, it is also clear that this process creates, or is the product of some sort of internal struggle between what he considers to be the “two dark realities, the self and the world” (Gardner 47). For many individuals, including Grendel, existence appears to be nothing more than a never-ending series of conflicts, mostly between the actual state of things and our idealistic perception of what they should be. These conflicts, whether realized or not, generate a great deal of emotional and psychological turmoil. This idea is present in nearly every religion and school of philosophy and has been given many names throughout history, but the more recent technical term for this flaw in human thought is “cognitive dissonance”.

In Amin Maalouf’s book “In the Name of Identity” Maalouf emphasizes that we should not judge people on one singular identity. He argues that, “Identity can’t be compartmentalized. You can’t divide it up into halves or thirds or any other separate segments. I haven’t got several identities: I’ve got just one, made up of many components in mixture that is unique to me, just as other people’s identity is unique to them as individuals.” The essence of Maalouf’s argument is that one should not define another based solely on a singular component of their identity but rather their identity as a whole.

In most case, identity is shaped by culture. Since culture is a set of ideals life practices, routines and attitudes set up by a certain community hence culture plays a major role in shaping the identity of an individual. An individual’s character and attributes can be because of their background. This is due to the set up that one has grown up (Dumas 19). People tend to learn more about their culture, and as they grow up it becomes part of them. They embrace the culture’s beliefs and tend to do things following the set routines. The aspect of following the set routine and beliefs play a significant part in shaping the identity of an individual.

According to the writings of Espisito (2005) there are four schools of thought in the Islamic faith or four attitudes that can be distinguished: (1) secularist; (2) conservative; (3) neotraditonalist; and (4) reformist. (p.228-32) An examination of the primary

Our religion and where we are raised is a major ingredient to formulating our identity. It is also why one person may perceive, as ‘kissing in public’ to being extremely wrong, where as one may not even notice it. Within the Iranian and Middle-Eastern culture, numerous perceive situations through the rights and wrongs of the Holy Quran. Research also claims that many of the passages within the Holy Quran “…are meant for human perception and comprehension…” (Berrada 45). This statement illustrates that our

Amartya Sen, an Indian philosopher, and economist wrote a book called "The Illusion of Destiny". This book is about identities and how they can lead to violence in certain contexts, as well as how they are important despite this. Sen argues that every individual is a part of several different groups and that it is up to them to prioritize the groups that they truly want to identify with. In the section "Constraints and Freedoms," Sen says that "The freedom to determine our loyalties and priorities between the different groups to all which we may belong is a peculiarly important liberty which we have to recognize, value, and defend" (Sen 5). What Sen is saying is that choosing which of our identities are important to us is integral despite the fact that some people might assume that we have just on identity-based solely on what they perceive.