Identity as pursuit of ""jibun-rashisa"" (selfhood) : Theory on identity by Paul Ricoeur

This paper aims at giving a clear understanding of the term identity through the examination of the theory by Paul Ricoeur. According to him, we use the term not always in the meaning of sameness, but rather we mean selfhood by that. In my opinion, selfhood corresponds to ""jibun-rashisa"" in Japanese. Identity is the process of pursuing ""jibun-rashisa"". In this paper, I treat Ricoeur\u27s some concepts concerning identity : selfhood, character, loss of identity, etc. And our discussion will be lead to reconsideration of the premise of his theory : variability of self