Identity as a mode of human nature

Abstract

An attempt is made to consider the role of identity as an integral part of human nature. The basis for this is the fundamental ability of the person to think about her destiny. Identity is understood as a multi-component anthropological phenomenon organized according to a hierarchical principle. The system of elements reflects the person’s life world and includes generic identity, gender (male/female), national (ethnic), confessional, generational, family-related, civil, professional (labor), and existential-creative. The main attention is paid to the boundary, ‘butt’ parameters of the elements and their coherence with the fundamental form — generic identity. The article deals with the insufficinetly investigated aspects of generational identity (the idea of the life path as its core), civil identity (in the center of which is the need to feel rooted in a certain cultural and historical space), professional identity (the consequence of the transformative activity of a person is her transformation into an artifact), existential and creative identity, which is interpreted as a source of autopoesis. It is concluded that the statement in the course of evolution by the representative of the species Homo the question of identity meant a boundary separating the pre-human being from the being endowed with human nature.