Postmodernism, as you've hopefully figured out by . The same is true of the self. Postmodern thinkers tend to see the self as a fluid, ongoing "process" rather than a "being" or a "soul." This means abandoning Descartes's belief in a solid, unquestionable ego (embodied in his cogito, "I think, therefore I am"). You could argue this questioning of the "solidity" of the self, meaning the idea that we are always the same, independent person, began with John Locke back in the Enlightenment. He argued that it was memory that gave us a sense of personal identity, making the self something like an ongoing string of experiences.
Similarly, the postmodern understanding of the individual is all about how we constantly change, and can't separate who we are from the social and linguistic structures that shape our thinking. The person is "fragmented," or "socially-constructed," or a "subject of language," and so on ... Some postmodernists even argue that we all have multiple personalities! Here is a good, slightly goofy but clear explanation of this skeptical attitude toward simple ideas related to identity. I'd like you to think about this, first in terms of yourself, and then in term of Captain America and Bucky in the film. Do you feel like you are a "thing," that you have a solid set of characteristics that make you "essentially" and "objectively" you? Or do you feel like the self is something complex and confusing, and identity categories really can't define us since we are always changing? Then consider the Captain, who misses a huge era of the world's development and is forced to completely change much of his simple, "modernist" black and white worldview. What holds him together as a person? Is he the same person he was at the beginning by the film's end? And how about Bucky, separated from his memories themselves and controlled directly by outside forces. Who is Bucky, now? Are Bucky and the Winter Soldier the same person or two different people? (In the trailer for Captain America III, Bucky says "I don't do that anymore" - not "it wasn't me who did those things" - worth considering). Write a paragraph responding to these questions by giving your theory of what identity is, with examples. Also, a paragraph is four sentences minimum, and none of those can be filler or repetitive if you're writing that little. I'm not going to give credit for lame answers that don't engage critically with these questions, or at least show an effort to do so.
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Jane Breslin
3/21/2016 04:29:37 pm
People's personalities can change, although it usually takes something drastic or emotional in order to cause that change as the person becomes older. With young impressionable minds, children learn from around them about how to act and, more often than not, gain a mix of characteristics and personality traits from their guardians/those who have raised them and their environment. Personally, the self is complex and cannot be simplified, although we generalize people in order to create categories for organization and as a result, a sort of separation. People react differently to different situations and, even though people may think alike, no two people think exactly the same. As a result, humans are complex in the sense that there are disharmonies between them and have individual identities including with what they like, what they are good at, etc. What holds Captain America together could be his morals and loyalty to those who are loyal to him. Even in the beginning of the movie, Steve Rogers questions the utilitarian methods of Agent Romanoff and the SHIELD agency. He still holds onto some of his morals as he stands loyal (to Fury and Bucky as examples) and refrains from killing, even those who want to kill him such as Bucky. However, he becomes a bit more skeptic of authority and learns about other such lessons as the postmodern world mixes with his ideas. Bucky was forced into submission to become the perfect mindless killing machine of a soldier, someone who does not ask questions and gets the job done. Bucky is now trying to change his ways and break away from being the trained assassin he was created to be with the help of his best friend. Bucky and the Winter Soldier share the same body, but have a different mindset, so you can consider them to be different people. However, it reminds me of a person with Alzheimer's, for example. They are the still the same person, but after the disease is in its severe stages, it feels like the person you once knew is no longer there. All that is left is a plagued brain and weak body that can no longer take care of itself. The person is still physically the same, but the brain that held all the memories and emotions have been forgotten and degraded. I would like to consider them as two different people.
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Skye post
3/22/2016 09:27:44 am
We know this much: that after approximately 7 years at a time, every cell in our body has been replaced. That every second we exist, we are experiencing a new moment, constantly building, changing, the "self". That, if we look at the end product, it is different, but throughout those years, new cells becomes old, old dissapears, new becomes old, old disappears, further and further. The mind contradicts itself, yet holds onto some core values. It experiences, alters, asserts, challenges, and so on. But if this "self" is ever changing, why, after seven years, do we recognize ourselves? Why do others recognize us? I am part "thing". I believe "self" is the only thing that keeps me from becoming you, you from becoming me. And part of that boundary is the body. Your body and mine will never intertwine or come together into one (but what about conjoined twins?!), therefore body contributes to the boundary of self. Now, does the same idea apply to the mind?? So many of the ideas we have, the thoughts that make us "ourselves" are LEARNED. We choose which ones we believe. We remember things people tell us, agree or disagree. So couldn't I say that to some degree you are indistinctly within me? And just by me communicating with you, and you understanding me, reacting, remembering, believing or even rejecting, I become indistinctly within you? So perhaps self is a very specific collage of the environment that surrounds us, the people, things, and the RARE original ideas of our own that may have never been thought up before. Even my own opinions that I came to on my own may already exist. So then, perhaps the self is more body than mind. But then, why, when we say "trust yourself", "love yourself", "find yourself", "lose yourself", why are we not referring to just bodies? If I forget everything, like Bucky, I'm almost not my "self" but SOMETHING keeps me "Skye". I'm not anyone else. I think, despite the extreme changes that Bucky and Captain America go through, something, some tiny little string that holds them together, keeps the "self" the self.
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Shea Cody
3/24/2016 09:06:12 am
I completely agree with the idea that we are always changing and evolving because of our surroundings. There definitely are things inside us that are ingrained in us forever after a particular experience, but we change as people over our lifetimes. We develop characteristics and personality traits that replace others over time. After a while we become in some ways completely different people. For example, adults generally are completely different people from who they were in middle school, but they also have ideals and morals they developed during that time that they hold on to. Some of these things that make us who we are are definitely based on our surroundings and the language used. While other aspects come from something ingrained inside us that we do not fully understand yet because neither science nor philosophy can fully prove or disprove it.
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Abby Westgate
3/25/2016 08:52:16 am
I feel that “the self” is definitely something complex and confusing. We are constantly changing, and I don’t think there are any characteristics that make me essentially and objectively myself. I am not the same person I was five years ago. The same idea emerges when I look at baby photos of myself. Are those really photos of me? I do not look the same as I do in those photos, nor do I have the same thoughts. Photos of me from the past are different versions of myself frozen in time--they are not exactly who I am today. The Bucky that has his memory wiped is not the same Bucky that Captain America knew. He did not have the same memories as Bucky, and had no emotional attachment to Captain America at all. The relationships we form with people make us who we are. In addition to having his memories wiped, Bucky’s body was altered, too. His metal arm separated him even more from the self he was before Hydra intervened. When your thoughts and your body change, your definition of self changes, too. Captain America had the same body he always had, but he found himself in our modern world. After his environment had changed, Captain America was able to have a better definition of himself. He discovered that even in a different time period/environment, he stayed true to his beliefs and still wanted to protect the American people. He did not mindlessly follow the rules of S.H.I.E.L.D. because he knew they were wrong. Captain America stayed true to his own morals, which are definitely part of his self.
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Sir Adel Soliman
3/26/2016 04:40:39 pm
"memory that gave us a sense of personal ID" How can that be when memory can easily be altered. Tell yourself a lie enough times it becomes true. Best liars are ones who fool their own minds into believing a lie as the absolute truth. There is doubt in truth all the time/ The government has experimented with brainwashing. Korean soldiers where brainwashed during the Korean war. Concussions can destroy a mind and memory. So how can memory possibly be a base for an identity?
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Zoe Kralyevich
4/5/2016 09:05:29 am
We undoubtedly are constantly changing, whether it be mental or physical. The idea of an "identity" is tricky because it essentially is how others perceive you. This can be based on just physical appearance and/or your personality as well. As for physical judgements I find it very confusing because we have been taught what is "right" and "wrong" as far as physical appearance. This is why I have such a big issue with employers refusing to hire people because they have tattoos, dyed hair, etc. I, as someone who changes their hair basically everyday, not only have an issue with this but with how a person can be perceived if they choose to express themselves through tattoos, dye, and other things. I believe these are just creative outlets and if we have the resources then why not do it? Yes it's a commitment but that is up to you to decide what you want.
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dannielle wolf
4/6/2016 05:56:40 pm
I think the self is constantly evolving and adapting to the new situations we find ourselves in every day. However, there are traits that I have found in myself that I have decided make up myself, like my morals. I can find comfort in some of them, but I even find them to be tricky when I find myself questioning them. I always come back to the same couple of traits though. Of course, these little ideas do not make up my entire self, only parts. The other 85% of me is a constant mix that adjusts to every new moment that comes my way.
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Emilie Weiner
4/19/2016 06:46:07 am
The concept of identity can be at times very difficult to grasp, and throughout my short lifetime I have given the idea a fair amount of consideration. I've pondered greatly the question of memory, and how it shapes who you are. Why is it that there are so many moments within our lifetime that we would not remember without a photograph or some sort of documentation? Does forgetting it otherwise mean we were not mean to remember it? And why is our memory so easily distorted and so highly selective? Am I constantly remembering the same event, or merely the last time I remember it? All of these questions drive me nuts, but the thought of all of them has led me to the conclusion that memory and the past both shape the present, and the present is distinguishable by change. We are a million different people throughout our lifetimes, and that's what makes living so incredible. We are prone to alteration and metamorphosis. It's why most people are not in our lives forever. The app timehop is incredible; it takes me through my embarrassing social media journey as far back as I can be documented, and I can certainly say I am not who I was 5 years ago. Therefore, I believe Bucky is not the same person as before. He is not who captain America was best friends with, and the fact that he was brainwashed into change has given him a new identity entirely.
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kristen wimmer
4/19/2016 07:17:07 am
I agree with John Locke's assertion that identity is a cultivation of memory. While I would say we are one individual, we are ever changing as a result of our new experiences. Without memory, we do not have a consistent personality. In Bucky's case, he id brainwashed and loses his memories, and thus loses his kindness and love for Captain America; he literally loses the identity of "Bucky", a human name, in exchange for the title of a killing machine, The Winter Soldier. In real life, people who lose their memory tend not to have predictable behavior as result of a consistent personality. For example, those with Alzheimer's or traumatic brain injuries do not interact with people in their usual manner. On the other hand, those with PTSD have vivid, disturbing memories that often dramatically change how they perceive and interact within their world, proving that it is our ongoing experiences that dictate who we are. Babies have not cultivated their own identity yet because of their lack of memories. I would also say that in my own life that my personality is a result of what I've learned from my past memories.
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