When someone asks you who you are, you might reply with your name or some defining trait as if they contain your identity. In a group setting, there are icebreakers where you explain yourself with your personality traits or preferences. Everyone has some idea of who they are, but is the version of you in your head your real self? Is there a real you?
The self does exist despite what people may believe. “The self doesn’t actually exist. It’s all completely in your head,” Richard Montgomery High School freshman Josie Ngyuen said.
While your identity is not tangible, this does not prove that it does not exist. After all, ideas and thoughts are not tangible, but the world knows that they are real. We know they are real because we experience them every day, the same way we witness the expression of ourselves in everyday life.
Every word you say and action you take represents your identity. Your friends and family know you because they recognize patterns in the way you express yourself. If the self does not exist then why does every person have a distinct character?
There are arguments that the self changes based on the person who views it. “Everyone sees you differently so there is no true version of yourself,” Richard Montgomery junior Liana Voritskul said. “The self is dependent on others.”
However, this is false. If someone thinks you are mean, you do not become mean. Your self remains unchanged by the way other people perceive it. Believing that you have a trait does not give you that trait. You can perceive yourself falsely.
“I don’t have a good sense of my identity,” Richard Montgomery junior Grace Andrianjafitrimo said. “I know some of the basics about myself, like what foods or shows I like, but besides that, who knows.”
Even if you cannot understand or truly view yourself, it still exists. David Hume, an 18th-century Scottish philosopher shared his opinions on the self in A Treatise of Human Nature. Hume wrote, “I never catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe anything but the perception.”
According to Aeon, “empirical research in the mind sciences provides robust reasons to deny antirealism. The self lends itself to scientific explanations and generalizations, and such scientific information can be used to understand disorders of the self, such as depression and schizophrenia, and to develop this self-understanding facilitates one’s ability to live a rich moral life.”
“If you want to understand yourself better I recommend trying new things and reflecting on them,” said Andrianjafitrimo, “That way you can figure out what you like and use it to help you in life.”
Those without a strong sense of their identities have found planning their futures difficult. “I don’t know what I like and dislike so I can’t decide what I want to do in the future,” Voritskul said. “It’s hard because school has us plan our future career so early on. I don’t know what I want to do next year, much less the rest of my life.”
Written by Madeline Springer of Richard Montgomery High School
Photo courtesy of Akiwen Ewimbi of Seneca Valley High School