What Is Identity?

When I first began to think about what identity was, I’m ashamed to say, I turned to Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a good friend of mine and usually provides me with answers that I find helpful and informative. The Wikepedia page on Identiy was neither of these. It was wrong. I didn’t read much of it but form the first paragraph I got the sense that Personal Continuity was integral to identity. It would even have you believe that this is essentially what identity was. Wrong. And I can say that because this is all about how I will perceive and represent identity. I will at least explain why this is wrong. Personal Continuity suggests that a number of traits in a person at any given time will sufficiently match traits they will display at another point in time, and that dictates their identity. This will probably hold true for a space of months or even years but what if this second point in time is decades into the future? Are the traits a person displays as a 25 year old going to have any degree of similarity to the ones they display when 55? We’ve all seen the latest bonds advert on T.V. where teens, showing off boxers with their pants falling halfway off their ass, are contrasted to a group of old men, who have their pants up somewhere near their neckline. Each group laughs at the others attire after they pass. But surely those pops were young and hip once? And these young men aren’t going to go round the rest of their lives wearing their pants like curtain drapes, enjoying loud music and being raucous at parties. What about criminals turning their life around for the best? If personal continuity was true then it would be impossible to believe anyone could become a changed man and live a completely different life, in which case that clichéd line “I’m a new man” must mean nothing to you and therefore you don’t enjoy 90% of the movies in the drama section at the video store. The point I’m trying to make is everyone’s identity changes over time as we grow and learn we understand and perceive things differently precipitating a change in the way we act and thus the way others perceive us. Maybe not drastically but in some way or another our identities change over time. So I’ve deduced what Identity isn’t… It’s a start.