Yara Piras

Things, entities, and subjects exist as distinct and separate entities, enclosed within boundaries, yet they engage with one another, interpenetrating, just as identity and otherness inevitably interpenetrate. However, change—which sees otherness directly involved in a process of formation—does not occur by chance, but along a direction of universal value. The etymology of the word identity, derived from the Late Latin identĭtas -atis as a derivation of idem (“the same”), suggests a definition: the complex of characteristic and fundamental personal data that allows recognition or guarantees authenticity, especially from an administrative or bureaucratic perspective. This efficient simplification of the concept of identity has allowed society to appropriate it: in fact, today individuals are described within our social context through data and information. This utilitarian interpretation of such a personal concept has, in turn, transformed the way individuals perceive their own individuality.