Exploring John's Identity: Who Is He Really?

[Langbein]

Who am I, and what is it that give this identity to this daily life person that I know as me ?

Should I say that I'm "John the taxi" driver or "John the teacher" or "John the neigbour", or what should I say ?

What is that or those specific properties that gives John the identity of the person John ?

Could it actually be that he/I actually do not have an identity, and that he/I is just "another John" ?

What is then "identity" ?

 

[baywax]

Who am I, and what is it that give this identity to this daily life person that I know as me ?

Should I say that I'm "John the taxi" driver or "John the teacher" or "John the neigbour", or what should I say ?

What is that or those specific properties that gives John the identity of the person John ?

Could it actually be that he/I actually do not have an identity, and that he/I is just "another John" ?

What is then "identity" ?

It takes having an identity to know what it is. Experience is going to help you understand what an identity is. Nothing else will help. Understanding identity can only come from experience.

 

[Langbein]

If the two twin boys John and George living in the same family they will have one identity as long as their experiences are the same ?

What about my dog does it has an identity ? Will it know that it is that certain mydog dog ? Will it know that it is different from other dogs ?

 

[Surrealist]

"Cogito, ergo sum." --Rene Descartes

You can only know for certain that you and you alone exist. Anything else you perceive to exist (e.g. your dog, your twin brother) might be nothing more than a figment of your imagination. You can know for a fact that you exist when you realize that you are thinking. Because, things that do not exist do not have thoughts.

 

[jiohdi]

A corporation is a legally fictious person, but I think we are more alike then the people who invented them considered. when I address you, I am addressing a legal fiction as you are not the same person you were just a moment ago and will not be a moment from now. Your experiences, parts, and anything you might think of are in constant flux and never the same twice. Like a corporation, you are a collection that has access to resources and the desire to fulfill goals. Just as members of a corporation can change and yet the whole is seen as the very same entity over time, we are viewed as the same person and held accountable and/or rewarded for what we have done in the distant past. The buddhists speak of the NOT SELF. They point out that everything you can point to and discuss is not the true self, but also not not the true self... meaning that no answer is accurate in this direction. The REAL you is something you cannot point to nor discuss nor say is this nor that.