Ron Hopkins

University of West Georgia

Thought and Identity:

Cognition, Education, Society and Authenticity.

• The Question of Being

• Who are we?

• How are we?

• What is the I of the I?

• Previous Words

• Socrates

• Plato

• Shakespeare

• Heidegger

More Words

• Authentic

• (1300-50) Late Latin, derived from authént, “one who does things himself.”

• Self

• From Old English, self as “one’s own person, same.” From the root meaning, “separate, apart.”

• Identity:

• (1600) Meaning, “sameness, oneness.” Most likely abstracted from identidem, meaning “over and over.”

•Identity as…

•Cultural

•Gender

•Ethnicity

•Social

•Religious

• Western Logic

• Metaphysical Properties

• X = Y

• X = Y is only true on the condition that X is the same thing as Y

• If X = Y then it follows that Y = X

• In logic, the properties of Identity becomes transitive, symmetric and reflexive.

• If 1 + 1 = 2, then 1+1 is the same as 2.

• I of today is the same thing as I of yesterday.

• Ship of Theseus

• When does the identity of a thing end?

• Time and Change

• When does temporality affect identity?

• “The Invented Self”

• “Authenticity Inventory”

• Verbal defensiveness

• Mindfulness

• Coping styles

• Self-concept structure

• Social role functioning

• Goal pursuits

• General well-being

• Romantic relationships

• Parenting styles

• Self-esteem.

• (Goldman and Kernis, 2001)

• Daniel Kahneman and The Myth of the Rational Mind

• Type 1: “It's a rough and crude characterization. Practiced skill is Type 1, that's essential, the thing that we know how to do like driving, or speaking, or understanding language and so on, they're Type 1. That makes them automatic and largely effortless, and essentially impossible to control...it's completely unconscious and very powerful, mixes cognition and motivation in a way that is inextricable and has a lot of control over behavior.” (Kahneman, 2011)

• Type 2: “Is more controlled, slower, is more deliberate…Type 2 is who we think we are. I would say that, if one made a film on this, Type 2 would be a secondary character who thinks that he is the hero because that's who we think we are, but in fact, it's Type 1 that does most of the work, and it's most of the work that is completely hidden from us. (Ibid.)

• Tell Me About “I”

• A qualitative study incorporating phenomenological and existential considerations.

• How the development of the individual occurs in relationship to the development of the cognitive dimension of the individual.

• Seeking to understand how a being becomes and I, in response to their experiences.