Collective Identity

Abstract

Personal identity is an artifice that has helped philosophers determine what there is, the extent of our rights, and the range of our responsibilities. As these essays attempt to follow the trajectory forged throughout the history of philosophy, they too operate with the belief that philosophical inquiries either establish or take for granted a firm sense of self and proceed to place nature and others in a comprehensive and intelligible narrative. At the center of these revelations by narrative is the concept of personal identity. This section will examine directly the nature of personal identity and will lead the way to the other sections in this collection to help evaluate the extent of our individual rights and the constituents of our moral responsibilities. Personal identity shapes the views on what there is; it also determines the range of our rights and serves to justify our moral responsibilities. The present work will consider only cursorily what there is. It will, however, offer a compelling interpretation of personal identity and of its impact on the conceptions of rights and responsibilities. I begin thus with the determination of personal identity.