Modern life encourages us to pursue the perfect identity. Whether we aspire to become the best
lawyer or charity worker life partner or celebrity influencer we emulate exemplars that exist
in the world - hoping it will bring us happiness. But this often leads to a complex game of
envy and pride. We achieve these identities but want others to imitate us. We disagree with
those whose identities contradict ours - leading to polarisation and even violence. And yet
when they thump against us we are ashamed to ring hollow. In Against Identity philosopher
Alexander Douglas seeks an alternative wisdom. Searching the work of three thinkers - ancient
Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi Dutch Enlightenment thinker Benedict de Spinoza and 20 th
Century French theorist René Girard - he explores how identity can be a spiritual violence that
leads us away from truth. Through their worlds and radically different cultures we discover
how at moments of historical rupture our hunger for being grows: and yet it is exactly these
times when we should make peace with our indeterminacy and discover the freedom of escaping our
selves.
