The Problem of Human Identity: From Cartesian Secular Individual Identity to Aṭṭār’s Divine Collective Identity
Subject Areas : Comparative studies in the field of history of philosophy
Mohammad Ali Abbasian Chaleshtori
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1 - Professor at the Islamic Philosophy and Kalam Department, Payame-Noor University, Tehran, Iran
Keywords: problem of identity, epistemic sameness, intersubjectivity, Descartes, Levinas, Phenomenology, Aṭṭār,
Abstract :
The questions of whether humans have an identity and, if the answer is yes, whether this identity is individual or collective, divine or non-divine, lie at the core of what is called the “problem of identity.” Since Descartes’ time, these questions have turned into the main focus of philosophical reflections on human identity. In response to these questions, Descartes and his modern followers have acknowledged an individual and non-divine identity for humans; Levinas has entirely denied identity, and a group of phenomenologists have come to believe in a kind of “non-divine collective pseudo-identity.” The Cartesian view of identity is intertwined with the concept of “epistemic sameness,” while the phenomenological view emphasizes the concept of “intersubjectivity.” Critics of Descartes argue that his theory of individual identity leads to “solipsism,” meaning that “I am alone in the world”, and that “I am the only one who can know any external world exists.” However, centuries before Descartes, postmodernists, and phenomenologists, using a symbolic language and an integrative approach, Aṭṭār Nishābūrī presented a distinct theory of human identity in his Manṭiq al-ṭayr (The Conference of the Birds); a theory that contains elements of phenomenology and Cartesian theory and reinterprets the concepts of “intersubjectivity” and “epistemic sameness” in a gnostic and theological context. This paper introduces and explains this theory, titled the “theory of divine collective human identity”; a theory that can open new horizons for understanding human beings and their identity.
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