Transcript Who am I? Identity and ethics

Who am I?
Identity and ethics
Hektor Yan
Department of Public and Social
Administration
City University of Hong Kong
Dec 11, 2008
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…only animals live entirely in the Here
and Now. Only nature knows neither
memory nor history. But man—let me
offer you a definition—is the story-telling
animal. Wherever he goes he wants to
leave behind not a chaotic wake, not an
empty space, but the comforting
marker-buoys and trail-signs of stories.
—Graham Swift (b. 1949), Waterland (1984), p. 53.
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Treat a man as he is, and
that is what he remains.
Treat a man as he can be,
and that is what he
becomes.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (17491832), Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjare (1795-6).
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§I. Introduction
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Background:
•
The notion of an identity seems to be
relevant to ethics. For example:
– Moral philosophers (especially those
sympathetic to virtue ethics) are
becoming more and more interested
in the notion of a moral identity and
the narrative self.
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Background:
•
The notion of an identity seems to be
relevant to ethics. For example:
– What kind of identity people have can
also be relevant to ethics: identity
seems to be able to give shape and
meaning to a person’s life. One
experiences an ‘identity crisis’ when
one fails to see the direction or
meaning of one’s life.
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The aims of this session:
•
•
To investigate the relationship between
identity and ethics.
To examine the ethical issues that arise
from the notion of identity and questions
about which sort of identity should be
adopted.
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§II. Identity:
What is it?
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Background: Meaning and purpose—
a distinctively human issue
•
•
To understand why different events occur
in the nature world, it seems sufficient if
we can discover what are the causes
and effects. (Take a landslide as an
example.)
Human actions are radically different
from natural events: they are meaningful
in the sense that they are performed for
some purpose.
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Background: Meaning and purpose—
a distinctively human issue
•
•
What a person’s actions can mean in the
course of a human life is not a
straightforward matter. The meaning of
one’s actions can undergo the process of
negotiation, reinterpretation or critical
reflection.
This means that meaning in the context
of a human life cannot be discovered
once and for all. It is also necessary for
individual human beings to search for
meaning and purpose within their
particular lives.
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Identity, self-conception and the
narrative sense of self:
•
•
•
To find meaning in my life I need to
have a sense of identity: I should be
able to answer the question ‘Who am I?’.
[‘I am an entity in the solar system.’ ‘I
am a featherless biped.’]
We may understand identity in the
ethical context as self-conception
Self-conception refers to how a person
conceives of himself or herself.
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Identity, self-conception and the
narrative sense of self:
•
Unlike an inanimate object, human
beings can see oneself as an entity that
exists over time. In other words, a
human being can perceive that he or
she has a past, a present and a future.
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Identity, self-conception and the
narrative sense of self:
•
–
–
–
–
•
This gives rise to the narrative sense of
the self, which consists of:
what one has become,
what one is,
what one is going to be, and
how all these lead to one another.
It is argued that only when one can tell
one’s own ‘life story’, one can have an
opportunity to examine the meaning of
one’s life.
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Identity: its ethical significance
•
•
Although the identity of a human being
seems to be consist of a description of
oneself, such a description can also
have important normative implications.
For example, if a person describes
himself or herself to be a teacher, it is
likely that certain ethical attitudes follow
from the description itself. (‘A teacher
should not use foul language.’)
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Identity: its ethical significance
•
This implies that how one sees oneself
can have implications on one’s actions
and conduct in two ways:
– In the context of the search for
meaning and purpose for one’s life as
a whole.
– In the context of particular moments
of life where moral decisions are
made.
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Some threats to human beings’
sense of identity:
•
Identity crisis: A common and very
human condition, to put it simply, one
experiences an identity crisis when one
cannot see the direction of one’s future
or when one fails to find the ‘shape’ of
one’s life.
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Some threats to human beings’
sense of identity:
•
The erosion of the sense of agency:
– Can human beings transcend the
effect of social conditioning? Are we
always the product of a particular
upbringing or culture?
– Is the behaviour of human beings
‘determined’ by their evolutionary
make-up?
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Bernard Walton and Miles
Barton, Cousins《猴親》,
(A BBC/Discovery
Channel co-production),
(London: BBC Worldwide
Ltd., 2000), Disc 3, ‘The
Apes’.
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BBC Documentary: Cousins, ‘The
Apes’
• 26.13-36.43
• 36.43-38.00 (Threats)
• 38.01-41.21 (Border patrol)
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Stanley Kubrick,
2001: A Space
Odyssey, (UK,
1968).
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Film, 2001: A Space Odyssey
• 3.00-22.55
• 18.20-20.45
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Film, A Clockwork Orange (Stanley
Kubrick, 1971)
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Scenes from A Clockwork Orange: Alex and
his gang
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Scenes from A Clockwork Orange
The ‘Ludovico Technique’
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§III. The multidimensional
nature of identity
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A person can have different
identities at the same time:
•
•
An example: Peter is a Hong Kong
resident, someone’s brother, a postgraduate student, a heterosexual, a
music lover, a person who was born in
the same village as Lee Ka Shing, a
stock-market speculator, etc…
One can hold multiple identities at the
same time. In particular circumstances
some aspects of a person’s identity may
become more significant.
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A person can have different
identities at the same time:
•
•
There is an inevitable element of
selectivity in the construction of one’s
overall identity.
In the context of telling a life story, a
similar sort of selectivity can be detected:
one chooses to include certain events,
experiences or achievements while
disregarding others.
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The implications of selectivity:
•
•
There is the danger of self-deception and
dishonesty when one chooses to hide
certain facts about oneself.
The construction of identity can also be
abused or misused. This is especially a
problem when the construction of one’s
identity is manipulated to serve some
ulterior motive.
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§IV. A case study:
National identity
and being a ‘patriot’
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Background:
•
•
Recently we can notice that identifying
oneself as ‘Chinese 中國人’ in Hong
Kong has become a concern. Surveys
have been done to see how many young
people in Hong Kong have identified
themselves as ‘Chinese’.
Once the question of ‘national identity’ is
recognised as important, the related issue
of whether one is a patriot is often raised.
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Background:
•
The issue:
Should one identity oneself as ‘Chinese’?
Is it necessary to be a ‘patriot’?
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Two relevant documentaries
• ‘愛國者’ (A documentary from the 《新聞
透視》series), (香港 : 電視廣播有限公司,
2004).
• ‘愛國新一代’ (A documentary from the
《時事追擊》series), (香港 : 亞洲電視,
2005).
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Criticisms on the ‘national identity’ or the
‘Chinese’ identity from an ethical perspective:
•
In order to see the ethical status of the
‘Chinese’ identity (or ‘national identity’) it
seems necessary to examine what kind
of behaviour results from such an
identity.
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Criticisms on the ‘national identity’ or the
‘Chinese’ identity from an ethical perspective:
•
What kinds of behaviour or obligation
does the ‘nation identity’ create? Two
possibilities:
– A weaker sense of ‘national identity’
creates only a kind of ‘love’ (cf. 愛國) or
affection towards things related to the
nation.
– A stronger sense of ‘national identity’
creates some specific and concrete
obligations (責任) such as the
obligation to make sacrifice for the
country.
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Criticisms on the ‘national identity’ or the
‘Chinese’ identity from an ethical perspective:
•
A dilemma:
–
–
The weaker sense of ‘national identity’
does not seem to be morally required.
The stronger sense of ‘national identity’
may invite serious ethical accusations: it
seems arbitrary to require that one must do
something for one’s country when one has
no choice in where one was born (or where
one lives). To believe that there are certain
things that one must perform for one’s
country is morally dangerous: atrocities can
be done in the name of the nation’s good.
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Some possible replies
•
A ‘national identity’ can build up solidarity
and maintain harmony. Such an identity
is instrumental in preserving one’s
culture and a decent way of life.
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Some possible replies
•
People living in modern nation-states
have the duty of self-governance through
political participation, a ‘national identity’
may help to develop some sort of fellowfeeling between such people and this
can make it easier for them to listen to
and cooperate with each other.
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Film, Persepolis
(2007)
Directed by
Vincent Paronnaud
&
Marjane Satrapi
(Based on a comic
by
Marjane Satrapi)
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Marjane Satrapi’s
self portrait
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From the comic book
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Film, Persepolis
• 37.00-51.38
• 51.38-53.05 (optional)
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Discussion questions for the film Persepolis
in relation to identity: Some suggestions
1.What does it mean when one claims that
one is Iranian (or Chinese)?
2.What are the ethical implications to be an
Iranian?
3.What do you think is the meaning of being
Iranian to Marjane Satrapi?
4.What do you think is the relationship
between Marjane Satrapi’s ethical
character (or moral conduct) and the fact
that she comes from Iran?
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Discussion questions for the film Persepolis
in relation to identity: Some suggestions
5.Marjane Satrapi’s grandmother told her:
‘Always keep your dignity and be true to
yourself.’ And her mother told her: ‘Don’t
forget who you are and where you come
from.’ What, in your opinion, does it mean
to say that one needs to be true to oneself?
In what sense is it important not to forget
where one comes from?
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Discussion questions for the film Persepolis
in relation to identity: Some suggestions
6.What difference does it make to the ethical
character (or moral identity) of Majane
Satrapi when she refused to acknowledge
her Iranian origin? Or is it the case that it
makes little or no difference?
7.If you have watched the whole film, would
you say that Marjane Satrapi has finally
found ‘herself’ or her true identity? Do you
think that an identity matters to human
beings? Why or why not?
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The complicated identity of Marjane
Satrapi
• She is from a ‘westernized’ family in Iran
with relatives involved in socialism and
communism.
• Studies high school in Vienna.
• Married and divorced a Iranian man called
Reza in Iran.
• Currently a French citizen living in Paris.
• She now works as an illustrator and she is
an author of children’s books.
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Films/documentaries introduced
• Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, 《我在伊朗長
大》Persepolis, (France, 2007).
• Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey, (UK, 1968).
• Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange, (UK, 1971).
• Bernard Walton and Miles Barton, Cousins《猴親》, (A
BBC/Discovery Channel co-production), (London: BBC
Worldwide Ltd., 2000 [Published in 2002]), Disc 3, ‘The
Apes’.
• ‘愛國者’ (A documentary from the 《新聞透視》series),
(香港 : 電視廣播有限公司, 2004).
• ‘愛國新一代’ (A documentary from the 《時事追擊》
series), (香港 : 亞洲電視, 2005).
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References
• Culler, Jonathan (1997), Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chapter 6, ‘Narrative’, esp. pp. 8293.
• Gaita, Raimond (2003), The Philosopher’s Dog, London: Routledge.
• Goldie, Peter (2004), On Personality, London and New York:
Routledge, esp. Chapter Five, ‘Personality, Narrative and Living a
Life’, pp. 104-28.
• Kearney, Richard (2002), On Stories, London and New York:
Routledge, esp. Chapter Eleven, ‘Narrative Matters’, pp. 125-56.
• Norman, Richard (2004), On Humanism, London and New York:
Routledge, Chapter Five, ‘The Meaning of Life and the Need for
Stories’, pp. 132-59.
• Rosenstand, Nina (2002), The Human Condition: An Introduction to
Philosophy of Human Nature, McGraw-Hill, esp. Chapter 3, ‘The
Sociobiological Challenge’.
• Rosenstand, Nina (2006), The Moral of the Story: An Introduction to
Ethics, fifth edition, McGraw-Hill, esp. Chapter 2, ‘Learning Moral
Lessons from Stories’, pp. 35-102.
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