Question

***More of an Ethic/Philosophy question

What is your opinion/thought about individual identity in the 21st century? Out of the following: (libel, anonymity, privacy, control over genetic information) - which do you think has the most consequence on individual identity?

Answer 1

Identity can be characterised as a sense of self or who one is in relation to others in the world. It is something internal to the individual that determines how different roles in life such as a child, parent, spouse/partner, worker, politician leader, friend are performed. In the Twentieth century, individuals and societies show an increasing consciousness about the idea that we have multiple identities. Today, the focus is on more than one aspect of identity such as gender, race or religion. Individuals have multiple identities that come to the fore or recede depending on context. Thinking about identity requires us to consider which facet of identity is the main category in a particular context. This can raise ethical concerns as well as individuals with different set of identities may come into conflict over recognition of their own unique sense of self. Thus, it is no coincidence that that the increasing sensitivity to identify politics in the Twentieth century has also seen the increase of nationalism, ethnic clashes around the world especially due to the effect of globalisation which has further broadened the social and economic differences between the people and increased peoples responsiveness to greater diversity in the workplace.

Within this context, the idea of privacy has triggered much heated debate. Privacy can be defined in terms of the individual’s control over information about oneself. privacy has played a key role in shaping our views on identity as as privacy describes the value that accords us the ability to control the access others have to us. Privacy thus brings in instructive morality into the discussion on identity as privacy is defended in many societies as a set of norms which are deemed as significant not only to control access but also to enhance personal expression and choice.

The concept of privacy has broad historical roots in cross cultural researches on the extent to which it is valued and preserved in various cultures. Moreover, within Philosophy, it appears most notably in Aristotle’s distinction between the public sphere of political activity and the private sphere associated with family and domestic life. Today, privacy is defended both as a personal interest with moral value such as one’s claim to a dinner table in a restaurant, and as a moral or legal right which guarantees a legal or societal protection of the individual’s identity as a member of a particular gender, class, race, profession or nationality. The issue has become more relevant in any discussion on identity in the recent era because of the excess of stimulation and accessibility tha5 has been made possible by technology and social media which threaten to obscure the essential Socratic quetsion of ‘who one is?’ beyond existence as one is never uniquely oneself even in the absence of others as others always have access to our identity, our information from the internet database.