more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Identity can only be affirmed of things which have a continued existence.
Gist of Idea
Identity can only be affirmed of things which have a continued existence
Source
Thomas Reid (Essays on Intellectual Powers 3: Memory [1785], III.Ch 6)
Book Ref
'Personal Identity', ed/tr. Perry,John [University of California 1975], p.116
A Reaction
This doesn't mean that Reid thinks there is nothing more to the identity than their similitude. But he, like Hume, denies that there is personal identity at any given instant. Reid is better at criticism than at formulating his own theory.
Related Idea
Idea 21327 If a stolen horse is identified by similitude, its identity is not therefore merely similitude [Reid]