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Single Idea 11983

[from 'Transworld Identity or worldbound Individuals?' by Alvin Plantinga, in 10. Modality / E. Possible worlds / 3. Transworld Objects / a. Transworld identity ]

Full Idea

We may say it makes no sense to say that Socrates exists at a world, if there is in principle no way of identifying him. ...But this is confused. To suppose Agnew was a precocious baby, we needn't be able to pick him from a gallery of babies.

Gist of Idea

It doesn't matter that we can't identify the possible Socrates; we can't identify adults from baby photos

Source

Alvin Plantinga (Transworld Identity or worldbound Individuals? [1973], I)

Book Reference

'The Possible and the Actual', ed/tr. Loux,Michael J. [Cornell 1979], p.152


A Reaction

This seems a good point, and yet we have a space-time line joining adult Agnew with baby Agnew, and no such causal link is available between persons in different possible worlds. What would be the criterion in each case?