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Single Idea 9173
[filed under theme 10. Modality / E. Possible worlds / 3. Transworld Objects / b. Rigid designation
]
Full Idea
It seems that we cannot say "Nixon might have been a different man from the man he in fact was", unless we mean it metaphorically. He might have been a different sort of person.
Gist of Idea
We cannot say that Nixon might have been a different man from the one he actually was
Source
Saul A. Kripke (Identity and Necessity [1971], p.176)
Book Ref
'Meaning and Reference', ed/tr. Moore,A.W. [OUP 1993], p.176
A Reaction
The problem is that being a 'different sort of person' could become more and more drastic, till Nixon is unrecognisable. I don't see how I can stipulate that a small and dim mouse is Richard Nixon, even in a possible world with magicians.
The
22 ideas
with the same theme
[items with fixed identity in all possible worlds]:
13588
|
A rigid designator (for all possible worlds) picks out an object by its essential traits
[Quine]
|
11187
|
In possible worlds, names are just neutral unvarying pegs for truths and predicates
[Marcus (Barcan)]
|
9172
|
A 'rigid designator' designates the same object in all possible worlds
[Kripke]
|
9173
|
We cannot say that Nixon might have been a different man from the one he actually was
[Kripke]
|
5821
|
Saying that natural kinds are 'rigid designators' is the same as saying they are 'indexical'
[Kripke, by Putnam]
|
14068
|
If Kripke names must still denote a thing in a non-actual situation, the statue isn't its clay
[Gibbard on Kripke]
|
10436
|
A rigid expression may refer at a world to an object not existing in that world
[Kripke, by Sainsbury]
|
7761
|
Test for rigidity by inserting into the sentence 'N might not have been N'
[Kripke, by Lycan]
|
7693
|
Kripke avoids difficulties of transworld identity by saying it is a decision, not a discovery
[Kripke, by Jacquette]
|
4953
|
We do not begin with possible worlds and place objects in them; we begin with objects in the real world
[Kripke]
|
4961
|
It is a necessary truth that Elizabeth II was the child of two particular parents
[Kripke]
|
17003
|
Kaplan's 'Dthat' is a useful operator for transforming a description into a rigid designation
[Kripke]
|
11891
|
Possibilities for an individual can only refer to that individual, in some possible world
[Plantinga, by Mackie,P]
|
11881
|
Rigid designators can be meaningful even if empty
[Evans, by Mackie,P]
|
12138
|
Identity across possible worlds is prior to rigid designation
[Brody]
|
16408
|
Rigid designation seems to presuppose that differing worlds contain the same individuals
[Stalnaker]
|
14079
|
Kripke's semantics needs lots of intuitions about which properties are essential
[Gibbard]
|
11979
|
It doesn't take the whole of a possible Humphrey to win the election
[Lewis]
|
15530
|
A logically determinate name names the same thing in every possible world
[Lewis]
|
12237
|
Rigid designation has at least three essentialist presuppositions
[Oderberg]
|
15174
|
A thing doesn't need transworld identity prior to rigid reference - that could be a convention of the reference
[Sidelle]
|
15183
|
'Dthat' operates to make a singular term into a rigid term
[Sidelle]
|