Combining Philosophers

Ideas for J Fodor / E Lepore, Bernard Williams and Bertrand Russell

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2 ideas

9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 7. Indiscernible Objects
Terms are identical if they belong to all the same classes [Russell]
     Full Idea: Two terms are identical when the second belongs to every class to which the first belongs.
     From: Bertrand Russell (The Principles of Mathematics [1903], §026)
It at least makes sense to say two objects have all their properties in common [Wittgenstein on Russell]
     Full Idea: Russell's definition of '=' is inadequate, because according to it we cannot say that two objects have all their properties in common. (Even if this proposition is never correct, it still has a sense).
     From: comment on Bertrand Russell (The Principles of Mathematics [1903]) by Ludwig Wittgenstein - Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 5.5302
     A reaction: This is what now seems to be a standard denial of the bizarre Leibniz claim that there never could be two things with identical properties, even, it seems, in principle. What would Leibniz made of two electrons?