Pub Date : 2019-02-28DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0012
F. Coulmas
Talk about identity has become ubiquitous. The list of things that are said to have an identity is almost endless. The Introduction explains that identity is all about sameness and difference, but it’s not simple: ‘identity’ means different things to different people and in different disciplines. Identities are both things that must be explained and things that are invoked to explain. As the concept is understood nowadays, it is first of all rooted in the ideology of the French and American revolutions that celebrated the dignity and equality of the individual. This VSI does not concentrate on the different meanings of ‘identity’, but on why identity is important in so many different fields.
{"title":"Introduction: an ‘Identity’ wave","authors":"F. Coulmas","doi":"10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0012","url":null,"abstract":"Talk about identity has become ubiquitous. The list of things that are said to have an identity is almost endless. The Introduction explains that identity is all about sameness and difference, but it’s not simple: ‘identity’ means different things to different people and in different disciplines. Identities are both things that must be explained and things that are invoked to explain. As the concept is understood nowadays, it is first of all rooted in the ideology of the French and American revolutions that celebrated the dignity and equality of the individual. This VSI does not concentrate on the different meanings of ‘identity’, but on why identity is important in so many different fields.","PeriodicalId":393899,"journal":{"name":"Identity: A Very Short Introduction","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115594845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-28DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0011
F. Coulmas
The word ‘identity’ suggests immutability, self-sameness, and permanency, while in fact it does what other words also do: it changes its meaning, now so rapidly that it is hard to keep track. ‘Conclusion: the identity of identity’ concludes that, on the individual level, identities have become a matter of negotiating and, as the need to do so arises, renegotiating your place, your purpose, and your presentation in everyday life. On the collective level, identities are fuzzy sets rather than clearly delineated groups. Yet, the assertion of, search for, and preoccupation with, identity keeps growing and invading ever more spheres of life. There are no indications that the identity wave is flattening.
{"title":"Conclusion: The Identity of Identity","authors":"F. Coulmas","doi":"10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0011","url":null,"abstract":"The word ‘identity’ suggests immutability, self-sameness, and permanency, while in fact it does what other words also do: it changes its meaning, now so rapidly that it is hard to keep track. ‘Conclusion: the identity of identity’ concludes that, on the individual level, identities have become a matter of negotiating and, as the need to do so arises, renegotiating your place, your purpose, and your presentation in everyday life. On the collective level, identities are fuzzy sets rather than clearly delineated groups. Yet, the assertion of, search for, and preoccupation with, identity keeps growing and invading ever more spheres of life. There are no indications that the identity wave is flattening.","PeriodicalId":393899,"journal":{"name":"Identity: A Very Short Introduction","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114417045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-28DOI: 10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0005
F. Coulmas
‘Identity in politics: promises and dangers’ concludes that identity in politics is a challenge to democratic rule rooted in the principle of self-determination. As a natural child of nationalism, it gives rise to conflicts that political scientists study at multiple levels. At the subnational level, the focus is on ethnicities and group affiliations. At the supranational level, they are concerned with civilization identities. Considering conflicts in terms of civilization identities is sometimes persuasive for there is the risk of stereotyping, while identities are historically contingent and can be instrumentalized for various political purposes. Because identities tend to be presented as non-negotiable, identity politics is hard to reconcile with deliberative democracy as it makes compromise difficult to achieve.
{"title":"5. Identity in politics","authors":"F. Coulmas","doi":"10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"‘Identity in politics: promises and dangers’ concludes that identity in politics is a challenge to democratic rule rooted in the principle of self-determination. As a natural child of nationalism, it gives rise to conflicts that political scientists study at multiple levels. At the subnational level, the focus is on ethnicities and group affiliations. At the supranational level, they are concerned with civilization identities. Considering conflicts in terms of civilization identities is sometimes persuasive for there is the risk of stereotyping, while identities are historically contingent and can be instrumentalized for various political purposes. Because identities tend to be presented as non-negotiable, identity politics is hard to reconcile with deliberative democracy as it makes compromise difficult to achieve.","PeriodicalId":393899,"journal":{"name":"Identity: A Very Short Introduction","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124212634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-28DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0008
F. Coulmas
‘Selfhood and personality: the psychology of identity’ considers how psychology deals with the question ‘Who am I?’. Rather than a fixed state, personal identity is an ongoing project. The individual forms his or her identity by identifying with someone or something. Individuals who are unable to reconcile competing personal and social demands may suffer an identity crisis, an experience once associated with adolescence, which, however, in recent decades has been linked to mental troubles in adult life stages, too. Personal identity is something we are, something we have, and something we act. We perform acts of identity following culture-specific stage directions that leave room for individual expressivity.
{"title":"8. Selfhood and personality","authors":"F. Coulmas","doi":"10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"‘Selfhood and personality: the psychology of identity’ considers how psychology deals with the question ‘Who am I?’. Rather than a fixed state, personal identity is an ongoing project. The individual forms his or her identity by identifying with someone or something. Individuals who are unable to reconcile competing personal and social demands may suffer an identity crisis, an experience once associated with adolescence, which, however, in recent decades has been linked to mental troubles in adult life stages, too. Personal identity is something we are, something we have, and something we act. We perform acts of identity following culture-specific stage directions that leave room for individual expressivity.","PeriodicalId":393899,"journal":{"name":"Identity: A Very Short Introduction","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127846465","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-28DOI: 10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0002
F. Coulmas
‘Identity in logic and the classical law of thought’ explains that Leibniz’s law of the identity of indiscernibles conforms to the laws of logic. It defines identity as strict self-sameness, but raises the difficult problem of what counts as the same. By framing identity as a semantic problem and introducing a distinction between the meaning of an expression (sense) and what it stands for (reference), Frege provided a partial solution to it, but vagueness continues to pose a major difficulty for the logic of identity. Non-Western logics that differ from the Aristotelian tradition offer an alternative by viewing every concept as including its own negation as a property, rather than the absence of properties.
{"title":"2. Identity in logic and the classical law of thought","authors":"F. Coulmas","doi":"10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"‘Identity in logic and the classical law of thought’ explains that Leibniz’s law of the identity of indiscernibles conforms to the laws of logic. It defines identity as strict self-sameness, but raises the difficult problem of what counts as the same. By framing identity as a semantic problem and introducing a distinction between the meaning of an expression (sense) and what it stands for (reference), Frege provided a partial solution to it, but vagueness continues to pose a major difficulty for the logic of identity. Non-Western logics that differ from the Aristotelian tradition offer an alternative by viewing every concept as including its own negation as a property, rather than the absence of properties.","PeriodicalId":393899,"journal":{"name":"Identity: A Very Short Introduction","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114252666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-28DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0006
F. Coulmas
Social identity is to do with membership in groups that are horizontally and vertically structured, internally and in relation to each other. Taken together these groupings constitute a society. ‘ “Your station in life”: social identities in our time’ explains how with the growth of the service sector, class divisions started to become less distinct and were supplemented by ethnic divisions. Consequently, the general understanding of social class is changing and, as economic inequality rises, the issue of social stratification and identity remains topical. Group identities are relational, resulting from the inclusion of peers and the exclusion of others. Reducing individuals to a single identity as members of a group amounts to discrimination and stigmatization.
{"title":"6. ‘Your station in life’","authors":"F. Coulmas","doi":"10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"Social identity is to do with membership in groups that are horizontally and vertically structured, internally and in relation to each other. Taken together these groupings constitute a society. ‘ “Your station in life”: social identities in our time’ explains how with the growth of the service sector, class divisions started to become less distinct and were supplemented by ethnic divisions. Consequently, the general understanding of social class is changing and, as economic inequality rises, the issue of social stratification and identity remains topical. Group identities are relational, resulting from the inclusion of peers and the exclusion of others. Reducing individuals to a single identity as members of a group amounts to discrimination and stigmatization.","PeriodicalId":393899,"journal":{"name":"Identity: A Very Short Introduction","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132421256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-28DOI: 10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0001
F. Coulmas
The question of how consciousness and self-awareness connect with personal identity has accompanied philosophy since antiquity. Sages of diverse orientations have put forth various elaborate answers, showing among other things that self-awareness is more than just being conscious. The ensouled matter of the self-conscious brain still poses deeply puzzling questions about individual identity, and nowadays the new reality of anthropo-technology once again poses the question how we can know about ourselves. ‘ “Who am I?” Identity in philosophy’ considers the concept of identity in philosophy through time and the mind–body problem. It also discusses empiricist reductionism, mentalist essentialism, ordinary language analysis, and interactionism.
{"title":"1. ‘Who am I?’ Identity in philosophy","authors":"F. Coulmas","doi":"10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0001","url":null,"abstract":"The question of how consciousness and self-awareness connect with personal identity has accompanied philosophy since antiquity. Sages of diverse orientations have put forth various elaborate answers, showing among other things that self-awareness is more than just being conscious. The ensouled matter of the self-conscious brain still poses deeply puzzling questions about individual identity, and nowadays the new reality of anthropo-technology once again poses the question how we can know about ourselves. ‘ “Who am I?” Identity in philosophy’ considers the concept of identity in philosophy through time and the mind–body problem. It also discusses empiricist reductionism, mentalist essentialism, ordinary language analysis, and interactionism.","PeriodicalId":393899,"journal":{"name":"Identity: A Very Short Introduction","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123755674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-28DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0010
F. Coulmas
In literature, we can find all aspects and dimensions of identity: identity through time, the mind–body problem, the identity of words and things, gender boundaries, identity crisis, divided loyalty, mistaken identity, split identity, and the demands of modernity for individuals to have a national, social, and gender identity. ‘Who is behind the mask? Identity in literature’ provides a range of illustrative examples. In addition to substantial questions of identity, the art of literature is also concerned with identity in two formal ways. Style expresses the identity of fictitious characters as well as of writers. Finally, by creating fictitious worlds, literature constructs identity puzzles in its own right.
{"title":"10. Who is behind the mask? Identity in literature","authors":"F. Coulmas","doi":"10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780198828549.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"In literature, we can find all aspects and dimensions of identity: identity through time, the mind–body problem, the identity of words and things, gender boundaries, identity crisis, divided loyalty, mistaken identity, split identity, and the demands of modernity for individuals to have a national, social, and gender identity. ‘Who is behind the mask? Identity in literature’ provides a range of illustrative examples. In addition to substantial questions of identity, the art of literature is also concerned with identity in two formal ways. Style expresses the identity of fictitious characters as well as of writers. Finally, by creating fictitious worlds, literature constructs identity puzzles in its own right.","PeriodicalId":393899,"journal":{"name":"Identity: A Very Short Introduction","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123704293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-28DOI: 10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0004
F. Coulmas
Like race, gender seems to be an immutable element of our identity, while in both cases natural and socio-cultural determinants interact. ‘Adam and Eve, Hijra, LGBTQs, and the shake-up of gender identities’ explains that in Western societies, gender identities are being renegotiated. It exemplifies the fact that gender roles are subject to social norms, political power conditions, and economic exigencies. Inside (we) and outside (they) perceptions of identity are not always congruent. The present transformation of gender identities is not limited to women’s and men’s definitions of femininity and masculinity, but also involves recognition of LGBTQs who do not fit a two-valued logic of human sexuality. Modifications of established gender relations are likely to induce discrimination.
{"title":"4. Adam and Eve, Hijra, LGBTQs, and the shake-up of gender identities","authors":"F. Coulmas","doi":"10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Like race, gender seems to be an immutable element of our identity, while in both cases natural and socio-cultural determinants interact. ‘Adam and Eve, Hijra, LGBTQs, and the shake-up of gender identities’ explains that in Western societies, gender identities are being renegotiated. It exemplifies the fact that gender roles are subject to social norms, political power conditions, and economic exigencies. Inside (we) and outside (they) perceptions of identity are not always congruent. The present transformation of gender identities is not limited to women’s and men’s definitions of femininity and masculinity, but also involves recognition of LGBTQs who do not fit a two-valued logic of human sexuality. Modifications of established gender relations are likely to induce discrimination.","PeriodicalId":393899,"journal":{"name":"Identity: A Very Short Introduction","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130919716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-02-28DOI: 10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0003
F. Coulmas
‘Who are we?’ is just as tricky a question as ‘Who am I?’ Humanity is one, but at the same time divided into multiple groups. Humans exhibit many variations, notably race, language, and religion. These features constitute ‘ethnicity’, marking what seem to be clear distinctions; yet their usefulness for a coherent classification is limited. They are contingent, and hence subject to perpetual change, and they are vague, allowing for partial and shifting attachment. What is more, how we see ourselves often does not match how others see us. ‘Given or constructed? Identity in cultural anthropology’ considers the issues of ethnographic imagination, administrative classifications, ascription and assertion, voluntary attachment, stereotypes, and ethnocentrism.
{"title":"3. Given or constructed? Identity in cultural anthropology","authors":"F. Coulmas","doi":"10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ACTRADE/9780198828549.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"‘Who are we?’ is just as tricky a question as ‘Who am I?’ Humanity is one, but at the same time divided into multiple groups. Humans exhibit many variations, notably race, language, and religion. These features constitute ‘ethnicity’, marking what seem to be clear distinctions; yet their usefulness for a coherent classification is limited. They are contingent, and hence subject to perpetual change, and they are vague, allowing for partial and shifting attachment. What is more, how we see ourselves often does not match how others see us. ‘Given or constructed? Identity in cultural anthropology’ considers the issues of ethnographic imagination, administrative classifications, ascription and assertion, voluntary attachment, stereotypes, and ethnocentrism.","PeriodicalId":393899,"journal":{"name":"Identity: A Very Short Introduction","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134088134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：