Scattered thoughts on self-identification

Among other things, I am a mathematician and a Wacoan. It is moderately important to my self-image, my “identity”, that I practice mathematics and that I live in Waco. But there is an important difference between the two contributions. My identifying as a mathematician also includes a certain kind of “fellow feeling” towards other mathematicians qua mathematicians, a feeling of belonging in a group, a feeling as of being part of a “we”. But while I love living in Waco, I do not actually have a similar “fellow feeling” towards other Wacoans qua Wacoans , a feeling as of being part of a “we” (perhaps I should). It’s just that I do not exemplify the civic friendship that Aristotle talks about.

An initial way of putting the distinction is this:

1. identifying with one’s possession of a quality versus identifying with being a member of the group of people who possess the quality.

This correctly highlights the fact that self-identification is hyperintensional, but it’s not quite right. Two finalists for some distinction can identify with being a member of the group of people who are finalists, and yet they need not—but can—have a “we”-type identification with this group.

It seems to me that the distinction I am after cannot be captured by egocentric facts about property possession. The “we”-type of identification is not a self-identification of oneself as having a certain quality. It seems to me that we have two different logical grammars of self-identification:

2. (a) identifying with one’s possession of a quality versus (b) identifying with the group of people who possess the quality.

I think some people go more easily from (a) to (b), and some people—including me—go less easily.

I wonder if it is possible to have (b) without (a). I don’t know, but I suspect one can. It may be that some herd animals have something like (b) without having anything like (a). So why couldn’t humans?

I think the move from (a) to (b) tends to be a good thing, as it is expressive of the good of sociality.

There are also second- and third-person analogues to (2):

3. (a) identifying a person with their possession of a quality versus (b) identify them with the group of people who possess the quality.

Regarding (b), I am reminded of Robert Nozick’s remark that people in romantic relationships want to be acknowledged as part of a “we”. In other words, people in romantic relationships want second- and third-person identification of them as part of the pair (a kind of group) of people in the particular relationship. I wonder if that’s possible without (a). Again, I am not sure.

I think 3(a) and 3(b) have a potential for being dangerous. One thinks of stereotyping here.

I think 2(a) and 2(b) also have a potential for danger, albeit a different one. The danger is that both kinds of self-identification lead to an inflexibility with respect to the quality or community. But sometimes we need to change qualities or communities, or they are changed on us. I suppose 2(a) and 2(b) are not so problematic with respect to qualities or groups that one ought to maintain oneself as having or belonging to (e.g., virtue or the Church).

Self-identification

To identify myself in the relevant sense with some quality is to see that quality as embodying a particularly important feature of myself, as making others who have that feature be potential particularly salient role models for me, etc. This isn't any sort of attempt at an analysis of identification, but simply to hint at which sense of "identify with" I am using. In particular, to identify myself with Q involves existentially more than just identifying myself as having Q, and does not imply a weird claim that I believe I am identical with the Platonic entity Q.

I think I should identify myself with being a child of God, a Christian, a father, a husband, a son or daughter, and maybe a philosopher. I should not identify myself with being big-nosed or lazy or a Frenchman. The last sentence may seem a mix: Maybe I shouldn't identify myself with being a Frenchman, because I am not one. Maybe I shouldn't identify myself with being lazy, because although I am lazy, that is something to fight against rather than identify with. Perhaps I shouldn't identify myself with being big-nosed, because although I have a big nose, and that's nothing to fight against, it's still superficial.

Is there some general story we can tell about what qualities of myself I should identify myself with, a story that will help with the question: Should I identify myself with my ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, etc.? 

Clearly, the virtuous person identifies with having certain values, and there are certain things that no virtuous person would identify with.

Identifying oneself with a quality, even a quite innocent quality, can carry serious dangers. There is a danger of being guided by stereotypes rather than healthy role models. There is a danger of self-reduction--of not sufficiently seeing oneself in one's individuality (and, correlatively, not sufficiently seeing others in their individuality). There may be a self-curtailing of one's autonomy.

Here is a rough hypothesis. You should only identify with having Q when having Q places you under serious role-obligations whose fulfillment either requires this identification or at least is very difficult without such identification.

Since something that constricts one to fulfill one's serious duties does not objectionably curtail one's autonomy, the autonomy worry about qualities does not apply. Moreover, when the role involves serious role-obligations, the need for role models may outweigh the danger of stereotyping. When the physician identifies herself with being a physician, there is the danger she will rely on stereotypes of her profession, but more likely it will help her fulfill her serious obligations by looking to good role-models. Moreover, one's individuality is particularly importantly expressed in one's serious role-obligations.

The hypothesis fits with what I think about the cases. I think that being a child of God, a Christian, a father, a husband, a son or daughter, and maybe a philosopher each implies serious role-obligations, and the need to fulfill these calls for a self-identification. (My choice to put "father" and "husband" rather than "parent" and "spouse", and "son or daughter" rather than "son", is deliberate and obviously controversial. I am inclined to think the parental and spousal roles are gendered in a way in which filial roles are not, though I am not able to provide a full account. But my bigger points do not depend on this controversial claim.) But being big-nosed, lazy or a Frenchman does not provide me with role-obligations. Being a Frenchman doesn't provide me with role-obligations because I'm not a Frenchman. Being big-nosed is too superficial. Being lazy provides me with an obligation to cease to be lazy, but that is just a special case of a general obligation to be industrious.