Individual and social determinants for the formation of identity: A comparative analysis of research strategies

Abstract

This article investigates the concept of identity: the research objective is to consider the principles that can be used to unite various approaches to describing the emergence and transformation of human identity. The research method is a comparative analysis of significant theories of Western philosophy in terms of the achievements of modern interdisciplinary research. Within Western philosophy, most concepts of identity can be classified as belonging to individual- centric or socio-centric research models. Therefore, such a distinction serves as the starting point to discuss the emergence and transformation of the concept of identity. The provided analysis reveals two facts. First, the investigation starts either from individual human experience or from social communication structures, this choice determining further research as individual-centric or sociocentric. Second, it is ultimately impossible to reduce an individual experience or social effect to their opposition: both individual and social beings determine the emergence and functioning of human identity. Hence, human identity should be considered as a result of interaction between individual and social beings. Within contemporary epistemology, the activity realism approach provides a theoretical foundation for explaining identity as an outcome of human active cognition and the transformation of the environment. Thus, this article provides a theoretical foundation for the empirically confirmed fact that human identity is determined by all influential factors present in the lifeworld. Any theory that neglects any efficient causes for the formation of identity in concrete circumstances of time, space, and culture inevitably fails. The practical value of this article is to create a theoretical foundation for empirical research on natural or artificial transformations of human identity in specific circumstances of cross-cultural communication and competition.