I guess the problem with having your identity tied up in physical stuff, it is so subject to change due to things beyond your control - age, illness, accident etc. Though I suppose with the possibility of things like dementia the same could be said about an identity based on mental capacity or personality. Identity is one of those strange things that is hard to define, both continuous and fleeting (google the Ship of Theseus for an interesting philosophical paradox). You are tied to who you have been but you aren't necessarily who you were. The hair might be who you were but not who you are now, or it might be who you are now but not who you will be in a year's time.
I guess that's why the existentialists were so tied up in the idea that you not only make yourself through your experience, but that you are continually making yourself until the day you die.
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Identity
Date: 2013-02-22 09:05 pm (UTC)I guess that's why the existentialists were so tied up in the idea that you not only make yourself through your experience, but that you are continually making yourself until the day you die.