Identity

Short Description

The Identity (of an entity) is the combined knowledge about that entity of all parties, i.e. the union of all partial identities of which that entity is the subject.

We realize that this is a term that is heavily debated. However for our purposes, it is useful to see the identity of a person (or other entity) as the union of all characteristics, judgements and other knowledge that parties have about that person.

Pfitzmann and Hansen (2010) refer to this as the 'complete identity' of the person (or entity).

The Self-Identity or Self-concept of a party is the partial identity of which it is both the subject and the owner.

The way we define 'identity' seems to be very much in line with the paradigm of identity as a network, as worked out by Kathleen Wallace: "The Network Self".

For further details, see the identity pattern. Related topics can be found in the identification pattern and the identifier pattern.