Facing the uncertainties of being a person: On the role of existential vulnerability in personal identity
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Date
2022-10-06
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Taylor & Francis
Abstract
This paper explores the role of existential vulnerability in the
experience of personal identity and how identity is found
and created. Existential vulnerabilities mark a boundary
between what humans can bring about willfully or manipu late to their advantage and what is resistant to such actions.
These vulnerabilities have their origin, on an ontological
level, in fundamental conditions of human existence. At the
same time, they have implications on a psychological level
when it comes to self-experience and identity formation.
Narrative and value-based identity depend on how a person
relates to finitude and the ambiguous side of lived experi ence. Relational identity depends on how a person relates to
existential aloneness and the fact that the meaning and value
of our actions are partly out of our control; they are always
also dependent on other people’s responses to us. Bodily
identity makes us feel continuous and real, but at the same
time vulnerable to death and the gaze and actions of others.
Being ‘thrown’ into an arbitrary life context is also a form of
existential vulnerability. Authentic psychological identities
can develop by giving meaning to these circumstances and
balancing acceptance of existential vulnerability with the
courage to make choices and act
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Keywords
Existential vulnerability; personal identity; meaning-making; embodiment