The idea of my identity, your identity, and our identity took me on a journey into social norms, physical realities, spiritual considerations, psychological consideration, and philosophy. Starting with the classic approach of learning the definition of a word takes us to the dictionary. What then assured the complexity of my quest is each of several definitions is similar, but, not the same.
-
-
- https://www.dictionary.com/browse/identity
- https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/identity
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/identity
- https://www.thefreedictionary.com/identity
- https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/identity
- https://www.yourdictionary.com/identity
- https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/identity
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/identityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity
-
I then found an interesting quote:
G.K. Chesterton once observed that the “special mark of the modern world is not that it is skeptical, but that it is dogmatic without knowing it.” His point was that moderns have forgotten that they are assuming what they believe to be a given. “In short,” he concludes, “they always have an unconscious dogma; and an unconscious dogma is the definition of a prejudice.”
With this thinking in mind on definition stood out:
identity n.
-
-
-
-
- an individual’s sense of self defined by (a) a set of physical, psychological, and interpersonal characteristics that is not wholly shared with any other person and (b) a range of affiliations (e.g., ethnicity) and social roles. Identity involves a sense of continuity, or the feeling that one is the same person today that one was yesterday or last year (despite physical or other changes). Such a sense is derived from one’s body sensations; one’s body image; and the feeling that one’s memories, goals, values, expectations, and beliefs belong to the self. Also called personal identity.
- in cognitive development, awareness that an object is the same even though it may undergo transformations. For example, a coffee cup remains the same object despite differences in distance, size, color, lighting, orientation, and even shape. Also called object identity.
-
-
-
I then thought of the various ways people expand on this word Identity and began to build a list.
-
-
-
- Brand Identity
- Cultural Identity
- Digital Identity
- Ego Identity
- Emotional Identity
- Ethnic Identity
- Family Identity
- Gender Identity
- intellectual Identity
- Material Identity
- Moral Identity
- National Identity
- National Identity
- Official Identity
- Organizational Identity
- Personal Identity
- Physical identity
- Political Identity
- Psychology Identity
- Racial Identity
- Sexual Identity
- Social Identity
- Spatial Identity
- Visual Identity
-
-
I am convinced my list is not complete. What I can say is each item can be found in an article, definition or other written material produced by others.