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Full Idea
To adapt Quine's famous slogan ('no entity without identity'), I prefer to say 'no object without identity'.
Gist of Idea
I prefer 'no object without identity' to Quine's 'no entity without identity'
Source
comment on Willard Quine (Speaking of Objects [1960], p.52) by E.J. Lowe - The Possibility of Metaphysics 7.1
Book Ref
Lowe,E.J.: 'The Possibility of Metaphysics' [OUP 2001], p.157
A Reaction
Quine was trying to make us all more scientific, but Lowe is closer to common sense. The sky is an entity, most of us would say, but with very shaky identity-conditions. A wave of the sea is a good example.
| 5747 | "No entity without identity" - our ontology must contain items with settled identity conditions [Quine, by Melia] |
| 13387 | Our conceptual scheme becomes more powerful when we posit abstract objects [Quine] |
| 7925 | There is no proper identity concept for properties, and it is hard to distinguish one from two [Quine] |
| 8277 | I prefer 'no object without identity' to Quine's 'no entity without identity' [Lowe on Quine] |
| 1630 | We can only see an alien language in terms of our own thought structures (e.g. physical/abstract) [Quine] |
| 1631 | You could know the complete behavioural conditions for a foreign language, and still not know their beliefs [Quine] |
| 1632 | Translation of our remote past or language could be as problematic as alien languages [Quine] |