W1: Personal and Social Identity

Parekh personal and social identity

identity as two dimensional

Parekh personal identity, chosen and discovered

• inalienable inner life

• reasoned and explicit choice

• beliefs and values

Parekh Social identity

• religion

• culture/ ethnicity

• national/ political

Characterisation Problem

What makes me unique

Personhood Problem

What differentiates a person from a non-person

Persistence problem

How does my identity change overtime.

Personal Identity solves characterisation problem

PI = distinct sense of selfhood.

This shows us who we really are.

Social identity is determined exogenously

SI is determined by external factor, we have limited control over it.

Parekh Personal Identity and Sexuality

• PI is reflective, reasoned and chosen.

• yet sexuality is not chosen, and yet it is PI.

• How are we to know whether a part of PI requires choice or not.

Conflict between Personal and Social

SI can force people to CHOOSE to conradict their PI.

Example Ada and Religion, explicit choice, fragmented personal identity

• conservative religion

• Looses faith.

• Fakes it.

• Explicit choice leading to fragmented personal identity.

Example: Code-switching, radically different behaviour, incoherent PI

• Gay Republican Politician.

• Adpots radically different behaviour, context dependent.

• A reflective choice, but an incoherent PI.

Choice shapes identity, but identity limites future choice

• relationship between choice and identity.

• I choose to dislike carrots, PI, I cannot like carrot cake, PI.

Source of Social Identity

Anything which an individual deems important to their selfhood.

Social Identity involves normatiity and power, conformity, punishment, internalisation.

Society enforces:

• conformity

• Punishment for lack of.

• internalisation.

SI Expectations determined by single leader, the collective, outgroup determines in group.

Created by:

• single leader (Pope)

• The Collective (teen fashion)

• Out group determines in Group (Race)

Conflict of SI, choose, injustice, destroys authenticty.

• individual must choose that which means the most to them

• feeling of injustice.

• destroys their authenticity.

Issues with dominating SI, skewed perspective, divisions

• all from skewed perspective

• ignores others

• creates division by determining absolutes.

Robbers Cave Experiment

• 2 groups of boys

• division = resposnibilities, language, names

• pitted against other groups = conflict

Results of RBE,favout ingroup, arbitrary groups, violence

• deep tendancy to favour ingroup members.

• triggered even when groups are arbitrary.

• group comp leads to violence

Parekh True believers argument, religious identity

• believer = religious identity (SI) should override all others.

Parekh response to true believer argument, social turmoil, one identity

• reason is unavoidable, scripture requires interpretation.

• religious identity cannot/ should not be absolute.

• social/ political turmoil = obsession with 1 identity, NOT NECESSITY

Sen critiques, too much emphasis on social identity.

1. SI can change without whole identity changing.

2. emphasis on SI = people cant see outside perspective

3. if PI depends on SI the people will not leave bad groups.

Sen personal and social identity cannot be merged

PI is stable.

• Parekh changed nationality, but his PI remains stanble.

Sen, dnagers of merging, sectarian violence

• sectarian violence.

• People resist reason since they believe leaving the group will damage their sense of self.

identity is plural and one identity is harmful.

Sen main argument.