Significant Others
Philosopher Charles Taylor talks about George Herbert Mead and the distinction he made between the "I" and the "me." The fundamental idea here is that we don't discover who we are simply from the inside. Rather, we discover who we are by how we're r...
Identities for Addition and Multiplication Defined
The identity for addition is zero and the identity for multiplication is one.
Are We Social Beings?: Identity and Culture
"Are We Social Beings?" looks at the relationship between personality and culture while contrasting the atomistic and societal views of the self represented by Descartes and Hegel. Using the endangered culture of the Laplanders in Sweden as the basi...
Community and Individual Identity, The
Philosopher Charles Taylor talks about individual identity, particularly as reflected in moral positions of individuals. Professor Taylor explains that what often seems to be the position of the individual alone is actually a position that has, at l...
Being and Nothingness: Jean Paul Sartre
Philosopher Hubert Dreyfus talks about Jean-Paul Sartre, who views all human activity as a way of trying to cover up our nothingness and delude ourselves into thinking that we have an identity, content and meaning in our lives.
Cultural Identity
Philosopher Charles Taylor talks about the role that social and cultural groups play in the formation of one's identity.
Minority Rights, Cultural Survival and the Self
Philosopher Charles Taylor talks about the devastating impact on personal identity when reference points like language, traditions and other elements of culture are destroyed.
Self and Unconditional Value, The
Philosopher Charles Taylor discusses his notion of the self, stating that, "...if a self has an identity, then a self has to live in the horizon of some or other idea of unconditional worth."