(January 26, 2010 at 6:33 pm)Saerules Wrote:syna Wrote:
My body is biologically male... but i am not.
Just as a person in a nation is not that nation... I am a person that is not the body I am confined within. Hence if someone tells me "You are male", they are inaccurate.They have defined my body... but they have failed to define me. A statement such as 'you smell bad' is easy enough to interpret as 'your body smells bad', but it is inaccurate unless I am my body... which is no different than suggesting that I am my possessions, my nation, my friends, or anything i can think of.
Although i recognize what you mean by "You are biologically male"... i nonetheless have to disagree because I am not my body, and am in fact female (see self identity and identity in general).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity
True, but you are failing to consider the implied target in the statement of "You smell bad" as "you" is reassigned to "your body".
And a person is the collection of their experiences, like the character of a nation is the collection of all of it's people, using your examples of course. So as a national character is the set of all people within it, it is logical that certain characteristics of that nation are also, to varying degrees, part of individuals. Hence when a nation indulges in an unjust war, for example, no one person has all the blame, but all are guilty to varying degrees, as they are the ones who contribute to, and by extension, are the "nation".