The Dilemma of Human Identity


Book Description




The Identity Dilemma


Book Description

Collective identities are politically necessary, or at least useful, as banners for recruiting others and engaging opponents and the state. However, not every member fits or accepts the label in the same way or to the same degree. The Identity Dilemma provides eight diverse case studies of social movements to show the benefits, risks, and tradeoffs when a group develops a strong sense of collective identity. The editors and contributors to this pathbreaking volume examine how collective identities can provide powerful advantages but also generate conflicts. The various chapters help to develop our understanding of collective identity from how strategic identities are developed for protest groups to how stigmatized groups negotiate identity dilemmas. Ultimately, The Identity Dilemma contributes a new strategic approach to understanding social movements that highlights the choices and tensions that groups inevitably face in articulating their ideas and interests. Contributors include: Marian Barnes, Cristina Flesher Fominaya, Umut Korkut, Elzbieta Korolczuk, John Nagle, Clare Saunders, Neil Stammers, Marisa Tramontano, Huub Van Baar, and the editors.




Subjectivity and Being Somebody


Book Description

This work examines the varieties of reductionism that affect philosophical writing about human origins and identity. Gillett goes on to discuss the effects of neurological interventions, such as psychosurgery, on the image of the human.




Psychology and the Human Dilemma


Book Description

In this paperback reissue, May discusses our loss of our personal identity in the contemporary world, the sources of our anxiety, the scope of phychotherapy, and the ultimate paradox of freedom and responsibility. Whether reflecting on war, psychology, or the ideas of existentialist thinkers such as Sartre and Kierkegaard, Dr. May enlarges our outlook on how people can develop creatively within the human predicament.




The Identity Dilemma


Book Description

Collective identities are politically necessary, or at least useful, as banners for recruiting others and engaging opponents and the state. However, not every member fits or accepts the label in the same way or to the same degree. The Identity Dilemma provides eight diverse case studies of social movements to show the benefits, risks, and tradeoffs when a group develops a strong sense of collective identity. The editors and contributors to this pathbreaking volume examine how collective identities can provide powerful advantages but also generate conflicts. The various chapters help to develop our understanding of collective identity from how strategic identities are developed for protest groups to how stigmatized groups negotiate identity dilemmas. Ultimately, The Identity Dilemma contributes a new strategic approach to understanding social movements that highlights the choices and tensions that groups inevitably face in articulating their ideas and interests. Contributors include: Marian Barnes, Cristina Flesher Fominaya, Umut Korkut, Elzbieta Korolczuk, John Nagle, Clare Saunders, Neil Stammers, Marisa Tramontano, Huub Van Baar, and the editors.




The Ethics of Identity


Book Description

A bold vision of liberal humanism for navigating today’s complex world of growing identity politics and rising nationalism Collective identities such as race, nationality, religion, gender, and sexuality clamor for recognition and respect, sometimes at the expense of other things we value. To what extent do they constrain our freedom, and to what extent do they enable our individuality? Is diversity of value in itself? Has the rhetoric of human rights been overstretched? Kwame Anthony Appiah draws on thinkers through the ages and across the globe to explore such questions, developing an account of ethics that connects moral obligations with collective allegiances and that takes aim at clichés and received ideas about identity. This classic book takes seriously both the claims of individuality—the task of making a life—and the claims of identity, these large and often abstract social categories through which we define ourselves.




Human Identity and Fundamental Issues of Life


Book Description

The concept of human identity or who we really are has perplexed thinkers in all ages. Currently psychologists have shunned discussing this topic since it is an area that is incapable of being objectified or accurately defined. Yet the lack of self-knowledge is the problem of all problems. Due to such a lack we, for the most part, lead lives fraught with illusions, superficialities, and economic woes. This book is about how we can know our real selves or our genuine identity. It is the author's considered belief that we are all far greater than what we think we are, and the more we know about ourselves, the better we will be able, not only to make the most of life, but also to solve effectively social, economic, and political problems related to such areas as crime, poverty, competition, capitalism, individualism, freedom, and democracy, as well as war and peace. The viewpoint presented in this book is that, without a thorough understanding of who we are, no meaningful social reform can ever materialize. The author, a psychologist and teacher, breaks new ground in the field of understanding human identity and human problems. The guidance offered should be of capital interest to those who seek in life something deeper than the mere surface, something more than what is promoted by the zeitgeist of recent centuries and materialistic culture. The book is a valuable resource to readers aiming to enhance their capacity to know themselves and find their path in life.




The I and Being Human


Book Description

Originally published: The I. New Haven: Yale University Press, c1985.




Reasons and Persons


Book Description

This book challenges, with several powerful arguments, some of our deepest beliefs about rationality, morality, and personal identity. The author claims that we have a false view of our own nature; that it is often rational to act against our own best interests; that most of us have moral views that are directly self-defeating; and that, when we consider future generations the conclusions will often be disturbing. He concludes that moral non-religious moral philosophy is a young subject, with a promising but unpredictable future.