What is human identity; is it a characteristic defined by humanism, interpreted into arbitrary degrees of humanity or rather is it the manifestation, or possession of a soul, of divinity? If such defines our identity, then is being human an inherited genetic attribute or is it a state we achieve through rationality derived from knowledge and wisdom? Identity, however, is not always stable; it can be interpreted as a dynamic balance between humanity’s divine and animalistic personas – a debate of “dominance” between rationalism, curiosity and desire.
While philosophers, like Plato, describes human identity through the possession of soul, Marc Chagall’s painting I and the Village and Paul Gauguin’s painting Tahitian Woman with Evil Spirit emphasize…