20-12-2020
The French philosopher Gilles Deleuze is credited to have expressly identified the primacy of difference over identity. The primacy of difference over identity, however, is deeply implicit in our experience and thought.
For example, we ask, “Who am I?” not “What am I?” For, the “I” exists in relationship to the other “I’s”—in a differential, relational context of the self and all the other selves. Your identity—who you are—is defined by the difference that you are from others.
The more differentiated or individuated you are, the more distinguished or more unique in self-identity you are. Humanity as a whole is a whole field of such differences and differentiations, and the unity of humanity or human-unity is this dynamic field of differentiation and difference.
By being differentiated and different, you find your place and locate your self in the whole field of human-unity. By being unique (from ‘unicus’ = one), you attain oneness with humanity, and with the universe amongst every unique thing or event that exists therein.