英语论文网

Almost everyone has these abstruce questions deep within when growing up: Where am I heading for? What is the purpose of my life? How far the length can I go to make a difference? Having those doubts in mind and we start the journey of finding the true self—the marathon of identity-seeking. Some may have clear goals, and some are making experiments while walking along. Although many philosophists and big figures have given a rich literature on the topic, most of us are still on the way to find our own answer to it. It is too individualized a question to apply to a universal value.
The word “identity” is such a tricky concept. It creates the illusion that every one is unique in the whole world, even though we are 99.9% the same genetically. Physically, we have minor distinctions in appearance; and intellectually, we have a crowd of like-minded fellows along the road as well. So what does that 0.01% represent? Or in other words, what are the qualities that distinguish me from other guys?
In my opinion, the assertion of the distinguishable self entails two aspectes: how do we see ourselves and how others perseive us, in other words, personal identity and social identity. The two factors integrated foster a unified whole, yet rather than social identity, personal identity is the grounding stone of a person’s identity.
Personal identity is a set of values and pursuits driven by our individualized motives to find each person’s meaning in life. According to E. Olson’s (2003) description, it ‘deals with questions that arise about ourselves by virtue of our being people’. Such virtues as moral stand, personal principles and outlook constitute a person’s value system. But personally speaking, the recognition of the self comes from desire. On the ground that men are highly motivated beings, the motivation behind every action reflects the underlying desires for this or for that. The orientation of one’s interst and pursuit mirrors who the person is underneath. Often times, we stick a beautiful label on those motives which is called dream. However, we have many measures for those dreams. When dreams come true, we believe we have find the true selves and real meanings in our lives, no matter what positive or negative responces from the ourside world. Yet when reality turns out short of dreams, we are easily lost. When our broken dreams receive no recognition from others, we are discouraged. We feel the desperation of meaninglessness. As Milan Kundera (1999) says in his book Identity that ‘there are situations in which we fail for a moment to recognize the person we are with, in which the identity of the other is erased while we simultaneously doubt our own’. Failure to fairly justify our past experience, failure to make sense of our present actions and failure to map out the forseeable future often lead to deep doubt of the self. We begin to question the meaning of our being. We start to lose faith in all previous beliefs and values that had established roots, which seems no more than a feeble one at that moment. Therefore, a balanced inner evaluation of the self possesses great significance to a positive recognition of personal identity.
On the other hand, social identity either reinforces or weakens the personal identity. By defination, social identity refers to the membership or association of an individual with other groups. Identity in the social category is important f本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。