Is there *really* an answer to the question "Who Are You?" without reference to what you do?

Question

Can you tell me who you are without telling me about what you do or how you act?

More importantly, think about how fast we can make judgments about who we are and how quickly we can change them if "what we do" needs to change quickly as well...

Will someone on a search for their "identity" find anything outside of "the pursuit of who I am"? Will they find anything but a series of habits and behaviors?

I figured that since I wrote this blasted question, I'd give you my own thoughts (since i've been thinking about if for the last 7.5 years, give or take):
"who" i am has something to do with the direction I think i'm headed -- when I was a teenager and beyond, I had no particular notion of what I wanted to do with my life or "who" I wanted to be -- which is another way of saying "what" i want to be and "what" i want to do...
as i made decisions, i eliminated some choices, leaving me with fewer "live options" for myself, narrowing down my path -- through exponential variables, i've gotten my life path down to, say, about 500 options, instead of 500 million... since every tiny decision affects all of the rest of the possibilities...

as i eliminate more options, i create for myself who i am, which amounts to what i will be doing.
who i am today is the aggregate of the decisions i've made in the past combined with whatever i decide to do today...

Answer 1

Not hypothetically.
We humans, are all fundamentally and physically alike. Meaning our minds think the same way and our bodies function the same process.
Our reason is the distinguishing factor that characterizes our individuality. Our reason dictates what is it that we need to do, and how to do. e.g. what kind of job we should do, or what kind of course we should take in university, or far beyond this, our reason decides if the action we are about to implement is wrong or is right.
What we do manifests who we are. Thus we cant possibly distinguish ourselves from the others without referring to the things we are opted to do. furthermore, we can't possibly give an answer to who we are unless we refer to our aspirations(what we would like to do in the future), what we did in the past, and what we currently do. Otherwise, answering to this question would just define our attributes, qualities, some clear-case scenario of what is inherent in us.

Answer 2

Wonderful point you make.... indeed thoughts and actions define a personality and mind you, thinking is also a kind of metaphysical action.

I would agree with all that you have stated and add further. All our past decisions determine who we are, but who we are right now is defined by what decisions we would be INCLINED to take in future... therefore, perhaps, who I am is defined by what my inclinations are, which have been formed over the past through my experiences and choices made and further, it is these accumulated and modified inclinations that would guide my future choices even as future events would continue to in turn add to or modify my accumulated inclinations.

Answer 3

I think we can answer this question of "who am I" by answering "who am I in relation to others". So you could be a son, father, husband, friend, etc.
Then you can answer it by describing aspects of your personality. So you could be nice, thoughtful, intense, competitive, hard worker, ambitious.
Then you can answer by describing your wounds. So you could be a man who's had his heart broken by a girl, a guy who's experienced such and such a traumatic event.
I could go on, but here we could explain who we are by describing all aspects of ourself.
Now it is true that some could argue that our habits and behaviors give window into who we are, but are not who we are. That is unless you are a behavior Psychologist and they consider human behavior the sum of who a person is and instead of working on anything cognitive, they focus on behavior believing that if you change behavior, everything else wil clhange also.

Answer 4

If you want that kind of insight into a person, you're going to have to work for it. The surface is thick on a human and we have enough work t do peeling our own layers. If you want to know what is beneath the societal skin of a human, you're just going to have to get to know them yourself. I've found I've had to do the same thing in finding out who it is I am.

But remember this... though there is something under all the superficial stuff of the world, a lot of who we are is only possible to interpret when you have a frame of reference. And the frame of reference is frequently what we do and why we do it. The what leads to the why, and the why yields a piece of the who.

Get too abstract and you won't have anything to find at all.

Answer 5

Yeah, to me it is:
Wherever you go.. there you are.

Your identity, intrinsic to your ego, is an inward reflection of your personal human physical experience in all time which you call your life. This "I" who you believe that you are therefore is a coordinate in the context of a greater self of a union of you which you could call the sum of your experiences. The mathematics of his idea is clean enough to expand isometrically across all the known four dimensions and on, and basically all it says is, where ever you go; there you are.

Answer 6

I Am that I Am.

I am a daughter of the Divine. I am unified with everyone and everything.

I am whatever I choose to be at any given moment.

Answer 7

What would be the point... the only thing that matters to you about an "other" is what it is that that "other" is likely to do.

Your question is about the supposed duality between being and doing...

Maybe there is no such devide? Hmm?

The truth might be, we are what we do.

Answer 8

Here's my best shot:

I am a being who does not need to justify myself.

I have specific goals and aspirations, but fundamentally, they do not matter.

I seek to experience the grandest version of the greatest vision I ever had about who I really am.

Answer 9

I have once thought of the same thing too.^_^

Anyway,to answer your question, I'm Ken, a human teen guy, I may be a nobody in this world, but I matter to someone, Well, I can write more, but I have no idea how to put my words...

Answer 10

i am a friendly spirit alone on this planet....not by my choice...here to develop my tolerance ...i thnik thats my mission
it gets confused as i find more thuings to devlop along the way

how s that