Abstract
Identity has become a central theme in modern philosophy. In this paper we are not concerned with the logic and metaphysics of identity, nor with questions of personal identity. We address a part of the ethics of identity in the light of ubiquitous modern technologies of identity management. In many practical contexts it is a ‘forensic’ and ‘biographical’ notion of identity and identification that is often prominent and morally problematic. Persons identify themselves and are identified by others; they present themselves as having certain properties, others scrutinize their self-presentations and form alternative representations of them, either in- or outside formal or administrative systems. Persons are consequently dealt with in legal and administrative contexts (and increasingly also in private spheres) on the basis of formal representations and sets of characteristics or statistical profiles. In this paper we articulate a basic moral justification for constraints on how persons may be represented and identified in identity management systems by explicating Bernard Williams’ suggestion that respect for persons implies a particular form of identification, which we term “moral identification”. Moral identification in this sense implies the identification of a person as someone who engages in self-identification.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
O. Gandy, The Panoptic Sort, (Westview, Boulder (Colorado), 1993)
O. Gandy, ‘Dividing practices: segmentation and targeting in the emerging public sphere’ in Lance Bennett & Robert Entman (eds), Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future Democracy, (Cambridge University Press, New York, 141–159, 2001)
D. Velleman, Self to Self. Selected Essays, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006)
J. Perry, Identity, Personal Identity and the Self, (Hackett, Indianapolis, 2002)
K. Bach, Thought and Reference, (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987)
Directive 95/46/EC on The protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data’, (Official Journal L 281, pp. 31-50, Brussels, 1995)
R. Gavison, ‘Privacy and the Limits of Law’, in F. Schoeman (ed.) Philosophical Dimensions of Privacy, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 346–402, 1984)
J.S. Mill, On Liberty, edited by H.B. Acton (Everyman edition, London, 1972)
M. Walzer, Spheres of Justice, (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1983)
B. Roessler, Value of Privacy (Polity Press, Amsterdam, 2004)
U.E. Garver, Why pluralism now?, The Monist 73, 388–410 (1990)
D. Velleman, ‘The Genesis of Shame’, Philosophy and Public Affairs 30, 27–52 (2001)
B. Williams, Problems of the Self, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1973)
G. Marcel, Homo Viator, (Aubier, Editions Montaigne, Paris, 1944)
I. Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty, (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1969)
R. Moran, Authority and Estrangement. An Essay on Self-Knowledge, (Princeton University Press, Princeton (NJ), 2001)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this paper
Cite this paper
Manders-Huits, N., van den Hoven, J. (2008). Moral identification in Identity Management Systems. In: Fischer-Hübner, S., Duquenoy, P., Zuccato, A., Martucci, L. (eds) The Future of Identity in the Information Society. Privacy and Identity 2007. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing, vol 262. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79026-8_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-79026-8_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-4629-4
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-79026-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)