Single Idea 11888

[catalogued under 9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 1. Concept of Identity]

Full Idea

Forbes has two principles of identity, which we can call the No Bare Identities Principle (identities hold in virtue of other facts), and the No Extrinsic Determination Principle (that only intrinsic facts of a thing establish identity).

Gist of Idea

Identities must hold because of other facts, which must be instrinsic

Source

report of Graeme Forbes (The Metaphysics of Modality [1985], 127-8) by Penelope Mackie - How Things Might Have Been 2.7

Book Reference

Mackie,Penelope: 'How Things Might Have Been' [OUP 2006], p.31


A Reaction

The job of the philosopher is to prise apart the real identities of things from the way in which we conceive of identities. I take these principles to apply to real identities, not conceptual identities.