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5 - A Moral Perspective: Identity as Self-Interpretation

from Part II - New Perspectives and Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2021

By
Svend Brinkmann
Edited by
Michael Bamberg ,
Carolin Demuth  and
Meike Watzlawik
Michael Bamberg
Affiliation:
Clark University, Massachusetts
Carolin Demuth
Affiliation:
Aalborg University, Denmark
Meike Watzlawik
Affiliation:
Sigmund Freud University, Berlin
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Summary

There is a significant tradition in philosophy of conceiving of human identity in ethical terms. To have an identity is from this perspective to be committed to certain values and goods. This way of thinking goes back to the ancient Greeks, and it was rejuvenated in the twentieth century by thinkers who emphasized the “situatedness of the self” and rejuvenated the notion of virtue ethics. In this chapter, I shall articulate this tradition and show how it clashes with the ambition of much psychology and social science to be value-neutral. After tracing the historical background, I argue that Anthony Giddens’s idea of identity as self-interpretation is a useful starting point for ethical approaches to identity. Identity is here not so much a given, but rather a task of continuously interpreting oneself in light of situations and commitments. I then supplement Giddens’s approach with recent perspectives that are more explicit about the ethical. Charles Taylor’s notion of ethical sources of self and identity is drawn in to argue that human self-interpretation necessarily take place within an inescapable framework of ethical values. The virtue ethics of Alasdair MacIntyre emphasize how this takes place within evolving historical traditions, and the hermeneutic philosophy of Paul Ricœur stresses how the commitment to an identity project of “self-constancy” is a necessary condition for the realization of ethical values. Finally, I discuss how a contemporary consumer society in fragments challenges the ethical approach to identity, given the fact that ethical values are often presented as purely subjective.

Keywords

Identityself-interpretationethicsvirtueshermeneuticsconsumer society
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Identity , pp. 101 - 119
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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