Identity concerns whether something remains the same across time, change, or different descriptions. It applies to objects, persons, memory, and social identity.
Identity matters because we constantly assume that things remain themselves. You think that today's self is the same person as yesterday's self, and that a renovated house is still the same house. But how much change can occur before identity is lost? The Ship of Theseus is the classic problem: if every part of a ship is gradually replaced, is it still the same ship? In modern society, data identity, digital personhood, and bodily modification make the issue practical. We must ask what preserves identity: matter, form, function, memory, or social recognition?
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- What Is the Self?
- What Is the Body?
- What Is Memory?
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