Identity and Politics: A Theoretical Reflection
Author: Tsai Yin-Wen
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
Generally speaking, identity, whether personal or communal, constitutes itself as a major political issue in contemporary Taiwan. Owing to this consideration, this essay tries to explain the meaning of human identity in terms of analyzing its two moments: one is the capacity for rational self-reflection, the other is the sense of belonging to a particular community. On the basis of this, Twill proceed to explain the historical and political discourses concerning human identity, mainly cosmopolitanism and identity politics as well as narrative identity, with an aim to refuting the essentialist conception of identity. The poper tries to argue two theses first, the formation of human identity, properly speaking, consists in the dynamic dialectics between particularity and universality, and in regard to narrative identity, forgetting and remembering, and second, an anti-essentialist conception of identity can be viewed as the basic condition for mutual understanding and respect.