Jacobus Meeuse
Preface
I was given the opportunity to examine four great theorists, William E. Connolly, Emmanuel Levinas, Martin Heidegger and , Friedrich Nietzsche, in an attempt to shed some light on the idea of identity. Arguments concerning personal identity vary and there is an illusory aspect concerning the identity that theorist seem to often miss in their explanations. I have tried taking into account the various arguments concerning personal identity and have included ideas that encompass the part of ourselves that is beyond explanation. In the age of internet, with mass media becoming more and more interactive and each person becoming an interchangeable persona amongst friends and
strangers, the idea concerning who we are becomes more of a looming question. The awareness that we are more than our persona and that we wear different hats from place to place, internet site to internet chat room, makes who we are apparently more malleable. We have become more aware to what affects us and to how it affects us, who we are, who we can become and not, who we are not and who we are aspiring or pretending to be. What is to us our persona and who we are, as a constant or variable, becomes a prevalent subject of our being. To be able to understand what personal identity is, is needed more today than ever. Thus this examination is pertinent in our
contemporary world of multiple personas and the stable self that remains in each personality we portray.