Phenomenology and Mind 29

Exploring Personal Identity. Philosophical Perspectives and Insights from the Arts

AA.VV., Francesca Cesarano, Eleonora Volta, Marco di Feo

• Publisher: Rosenberg & Sellier
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9791259934062
• Topic: Filosofia
• Subtopic: Fenomenologia in filosofia

Personal identity has long stood at the crossroads of some of philosophy's most vexed questions. What makes a person the same over time? What constitutes the unity of selfhood amid the flux of experience, the transformations of the body, and the shifting social worlds in which each of us is embedded? Philosophy has approached these questions from multiple angles—metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic. Yet new and pressing questions continue to emerge, particularly in light of contemporary challenges to the very notion of personhood: the rise of artificial intelligence, the politicization of identity, the fragility of memory and embodiment, and the pluralization of gender and social belonging.
This special issue of Phenomenology and Mind gathers a selection of contributions that engage with this multifaceted debate. The aim is not to provide a unified or definitive theory of personal identity, but rather to illuminate its constitutive tensions and its manifold developments. The collection brings together phenomenological analyses of subjectivity and embodiment; investigations into the relationship between self and experience, as well as mind and brain, in the process of perceiving one's own identity and personal agency; feminist analyses of gender identity and gendered language; and, finally, aesthetic approaches that view art as both expressing and reshaping identity.

Table of contents

• EXPLORING PERSONAL IDENTITY. PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES ANDINSIGHTS FROM THE ARTS
• EMBODIED FIRST-PERSONPERSPECTIVE
• BREATHING POSTURES
• A LEVINASIAN CRITIQUE OFCRITERIALISM ABOUT PERSONS
• ON THE SUBSTANTIVE IRRELEVANCEOF REDUCTIONISM ABOUTPERSONS
• GROUNDING OUR SENSE OFPERSONAL EXISTENCE: HOW NOT TO DO IT
• MULTIMODALITY AND NO-SELF
• I AM NOT THE BEARER OFEXPERIENCE
• METAPHYSICAL ACCOUNTS OFPERSONHOOD AND THEIR ETHICALIMPLICATIONS FOR THE VEGETATIVESTATE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
• GENDER IDENTITY, FIRST-PERSONAUTHORITY, AND BELIEF
• LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY: THEPSYCHOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONSOF MISGENDERING FOR TRANS*INDIVIDUALS
• WHY BRAIN IMAGES ARE NOTREPRESENTATIONS OF THE SELF:THE TRANSPARENCY OF THE BRAIN/BODY/MACHINE SYSTEM
• RECLAIMING THE SELF.REDEFINING AND AFFIRMINGMARGINALIZED IDENTITIESTHROUGH CONTEMPORARY ART
• PLURAL IDENTITIES AND COLLECTIVEAUTHORSHIP: GROUP EXPERIENCESIN CONTEMPORARY ART
• THE OVERLAP OF MINDREADING ANDMETACOGNITION: AN ELIMINATIVISTEXPLANATION OF COGNITIVEEMPATHY