Skip to content
1981
image of Being someone for others: ‘Face’-ing the problem of identity

Abstract

This article examines the human face as the primary marker of individual identity in the social world. Drawing on later Wittgenstein and contemporary analytic interpretations, it argues that what distinguishes the face from the rest of the body is its capacity to disclose human individual identity directly to others. The analysis situates this claim against philosophical traditions that treat the face as either a passive surface or a symbolic code to be decoded. It rather shows that identity is visible, recognizable and socially intelligible in the face itself. It further explores how relational disruptions caused by veiling, masking or facial paralysis underscore the face’s centrality to social recognition. The article demonstrates that personhood in social life depends not merely on being, but on appearing to others through the face as the locus of individual identity.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/ejpc_00076_1
2026-03-31
2026-04-12

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Ahmed, S. (2011), The Cultural Politics of Emotion, 2nd ed., Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Burton, E. K. and Ghoshal, S. (2024), ‘The history of science through the prism of race’, BJHS Themes, 9, pp. 20723, https://doi.org/10.1017/bjt.2024.23.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Carragher, D. J. and Hancock, P. J. B. (2020), ‘Surgical face masks impair human face matching performance for familiar and unfamiliar faces’, Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 5:1, n.pag., https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-020-00258-x.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Cavell, S. (1979), The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Darwin, C. ([1872] 1998), The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (ed. P. Ekman), 3rd ed., New York: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Darwin, C. ([1859] 2009), On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (ed. J. Endersby), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Descartes, R. ([1641] 1996), Meditations on First Philosophy (trans. J. Cottingham), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Ekman, P. (2003), Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life, New York: Times Books.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Ekman, P. and Rosenberg, E. L. (eds) (2005), What the Face Reveals: Basic and Applied Studies of Spontaneous Expression using the FACIAL Action Coding System (FACS), 2nd ed., New York: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. El Guindi, F. (1999), Veil: Modesty, Privacy, and Resistance, Oxford: Berg Publishers.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Fridlund, A. J. (1994), Human Facial Expression: An Evolutionary View, New York: Academic Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Frith, C. D. and Frith, U. (2008), ‘Implicit and explicit processes in social cognition’, Neuron, 60:3, pp. 50310, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2008.10.032.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Johnson, M. H., Dziurawiec, S., Ellis, H. and Morton, J. (1991), ‘Newborns’ preferential tracking of face-like stimuli and its subsequent decline’, Cognition, 40:1–2, pp. 119, https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(91)90045-6.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J. and Chun, M. M. (1997), ‘The fusiform face area: A module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception’, Journal of Neuroscience, 17:11, pp. 430211, https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.17-11-04302.1997.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Lavater, J. C. (1789), Essays on Physiognomy, Designed to Promote the Knowledge and the Love of Mankind (trans. T. Holcroft), London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Lavater, J. C. ([1775] 1840), Essays on Physiognomy (trans. T. Holcroft), London: H. G. Bohn.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Locke, J. ([1690] 2009), An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, London: Penguin.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Merleau-Ponty, M. ([1964] 2002), The Visible and the Invisible (ed. C. Lefort, trans. A. Lingis), Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Moore, A. D. and Casper, M. J. (2015), The Body: Social and Cultural Dissections, New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Niedenthal, P. M., Mermillod, M., Maringer, M. and Hess, U. (2010), ‘The simulation of smiles (SIMS) model: Embodied simulation and the meaning of facial expression’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33:6, pp. 41733, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X10000865.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Parfit, D. (1984), Reasons and Persons, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Perach, R. and Limbu, M. (2023), ‘Faces in disguise: Social signalling and emotion recognition with facial masks’, Frontiers in Psychology, 14, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1203442.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Premack, D. and Woodruff, G. (1978), ‘Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1:4, pp. 51526, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x00076512.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Rhie, B. (2011), ‘Forms of commitment: Wittgenstein, Cavell, and the face of the other’, doctoral dissertation, Ann Arbor, MI: Harvard University and ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Williams, B. (1970), ‘The self and the future’, The Philosophical Review, 79:2, pp. 16180, https://doi.org/10.2307/2183946.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Wittgenstein, L. ([1953] 1988), Philosophical Investigations (trans. G. E. M. Anscombe), Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Wittgenstein, L. (1966), Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology, and Religious Belief (ed. C. Barrett), Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Wittgenstein, L. (1967), Zettel (eds G. E. M. Anscombe and G. H. von Wright, trans. G. E. M. Anscombe), Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Wittgenstein, L. (1980), Culture and Value (ed. G. H. von Wright, trans. P. Winch), Oxford: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Della Porta, G. and Lavater, J. C. (2025), The Pocket Lavater, or, The Science of Physiognomy, n.p.: Zinc Read.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962), Phenomenology of Perception (trans. C. Smith, Trans.), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Scott, J. W. (2007), The Politics of the Veil, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Wittgenstein, L. (1992a), Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology, vol. 1 (eds G. H. von Wright and H. Nyman, trans. C. G. Luckhardt and M. A. E. Aue), Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Wittgenstein, L. (1992b), Last Writings on the Philosophy of Psychology, vol. 2 (eds G. H. von Wright and G. Nyman, trans. C. G. Luckhardt), Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/ejpc_00076_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test