Identité

Identité is a French term used across disciplines to refer to the sense of sameness, selfhood, or classification. Etymologically it comes from Latin identitas, based on idem meaning “the same.” In common usage it covers who a person is (personal identity), what category something belongs to (classification), and the broader sense of continuity or recognition across contexts.

Personal identity concerns what enables a person to be the same individual over time and through change. It involves continuity of memories, experiences, and bodily or psychological traits, and it intersects with questions of selfhood, responsibility, and agency. Philosophical and psychological discussions often distinguish the persistence of identity from changing attributes.

In mathematics and logic, an identity refers to an equality that holds for all possible values, such as a = a or trigonometric identities like sin^2 x + cos^2 x = 1. In these contexts identity expresses a universal or necessary relation. In philosophy, identity is the relation that each thing bears to itself, encapsulating the idea of self-identity or the sameness of an object over time.

Social and cultural identity describe how people define themselves in relation to groups—national, ethnic, religious, gendered, or other affiliations—and how these identifications influence behavior and perception. Digital identity refers to the online representation of a person or entity, comprising credentials and attributes used for authentication and authorization. Identity management systems are designed to verify, store, and protect these credentials.

Contemporary discussions also address privacy, autonomy, and the risks of misidentification or identity theft, especially in online environments and surveillance contexts.