Single Idea 4893

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

Full Idea

A problem which Frege called to our attention is: how can identities be informative?

Gist of Idea

Frege was asking how identities could be informative

Source

report of Gottlob Frege (On Sense and Reference [1892]) by John Perry - Knowledge, Possibility and Consciousness §5.2

Book Reference

Perry,John: 'Knowledge, Possibility and Consciousness' [MIT 2001], p.100


A Reaction

E.g. (in Russell's example) how is "Scott is the author of 'Waverley'" more informative than "Scott is Scott"? A simple answer might just be that informative identities also tell you of a thing's properties. "The red ball is the heavy ball".