Experience: "the conscious events that make up an individual life"

As individuals grow up and move through life, they accumulate experiences which further differentiate each person from another.

Experiences arise out of thoughts and actions. From an theological standpoint, "... the Book of Life is the total of a person’s thoughts and actions—the record of his life." (Guide to the Scriptures)

In his famous statement Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am, ) Rene Descartes uses the existence of thought to infer the existence of life.

Thoughts lead naturally to actions. A well-known Proverb states, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Proverbs 23:7

Although experiences in and of themselves can be classified as differntiating attributes, they lead naturally to the formation of other classes of attributes. For example:

1. Experiences between people can establish relationships.
2. Experience can lead to knowledge, but two people having the same experience don't necessarily gain the same knowledge.
3. Experiences can establish reputation, either positive or negative.
4. Experiences lead to new a person assuming different roles.
5. Experiences help establish characteristics like physical health or emotional state.
6. Experiences can lead people to be in different locations.

Experiences can be happy or sad, euphoric or mundane, significant or trivial. It is the highly different sum of experiences that adds uniqueness to a person's core identity.

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Tags: Identity   Digital Identity   Identity Management   Identity Map