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Ethical Implications of Identity and Self

How do our notions of self and identity shape our ethics? What can we learn from feminist and intercultural perspectives on self and identity? Can an understanding of the vastness of concepts help to orient myself in difficult times? 

During the Wintersemester we, Dr. Krisha Kops and Lena Schützle, taught a course on the Ethical Implications of Identity and Self. The online course was attended by 20 students, some based in Germany, many based abroad in Iraq, Sweden, and Ruanda. The seminar was part of the online study programme Ethics of Intercultural Dialouge. 


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In collaboration with the Attenkofer Foundation, HFPH is offering four full scholarships for the certificate programme Ethics of Intercultural Dialogue. These scholarships cover the entire tuition fees, but please note that you will still be responsible for paying the administrative and semester fees per semester. International students will be given preference in the selection process.

To apply, submit your application for the programme through the portal. Then, for the scholarship application, send your complete application documents, including a motivation letter and your CV, to ethik.master@hfph.de by July 13, 2025.

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The syllabus covered multiple perspectives on identity and self, including works by intercultural and feminist philosophers such as Judith Butler, Kwasi Wiredu, Linda Alcoff, and Stan Wilson. It was eclectic in a good way. Pretending there was a homogeneity of ideas around identity would ignore the complexity of the topic.

We also welcomed special guests to the seminar. Namita Herzl, Hildesheim, gave an impressive introduction to The Genderless Self in Indian Philosophy – Insights from Sulabha just before her field trip to India. For our last session, students prepared questions for the discussion with the renowned philosopher Prof. Dr. Kwame Anthony Appiah, London. In this conversation, many aspects of what has been discussed in previous lessons were raised and woven into an analysis of today’s global society.

In order to give you some impressions on the course, we let three of the students speak for themselves:

As someone who originally comes from the field of theology, I have the impression that it is often overlooked that identity is an ethically relevant category. How we understand identity—and there are a variety of understandings here—has concrete consequences for our understanding of good and bad, a just society, and fairness. Anyone who practices ethics must be interested in identity—that is my take-home message.

Richard Mathieu

  1. Self-identity is I for others and others for me. 
  2. The self-identity endures the conflict and opportunity in the contemporary complex life dynamic.
  3. Regrettable self-identity is justifiable abuse of other’s life, culture, sex, etc. and the lack of tolerance.    

Bienfait Uwizeye

After all I have learned during this course, I now see identity as a dynamic phenomenon. The journey of exploring similarities and differences across cultures, illuminating concepts of gender, sex, and beyond, and probing the ideas of continuity and boundaries has only just begun for me. How does the search for identity shape my own sense of self? How does it influence society at large? As a physician, I wonder: How does it affect my patients and colleagues? These questions deeply resonate with me and continue to drive my curiosity. 

Sibylle Mellinghoff


Dr. Krisha Kops und Lena Schützle sind an der Hochschule für Philosophie tätig und gehören zum Redaktionsteam des Magazins Kontrapunkte.


OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Lena Schützle (25. April 2025). Ethical Implications of Identity and Self. Kontrapunkte. Abgerufen am 20. Mai 2025 von https://doi.org/10.58079/13tcv


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