Character, Personality, and Identity: On Historical Aspects of Human Subjectivity

From a hermeneutic viewpoint, human beings are self-interpreting creatures. History involves a development of the interpretive resources that humans have available for understanding themselves. Building on Charles Taylor's interpretive approach to human subjectivity, this article attempts to outline some significant changes in such interpretive resources. It is argued that different forms of subjectivity go hand in hand with changing modes of self-interpretation: From a premodern notion of character, through a modern notion of personality, to a postmodern idea of identity. In a culture of character, people primarily interpret themselves according to a moral and religious perspective; in a culture of personality, a psychological (scientific as well as romantic) perspective becomes prominent, stressing individual personality and its development; and, in a contemporary culture of identity, more fluid self-interpretations centred on a consumerist perspective gain in importance.