display all the ideas for this combination of texts
2 ideas
17044 | A relation can clearly be reflexive, and identity is the smallest reflexive relation [Kripke] |
Full Idea: Some philosophers have thought that a relation, being essentially two-termed, cannot hold between a thing and itself. This position is plainly absurd ('he is his own worst enemy'). Identity is nothing but the smallest reflexive relation. | |
From: Saul A. Kripke (Naming and Necessity notes and addenda [1972], note 50) | |
A reaction: I have no idea what 'smallest' means here. I can't be 'to the left of myself', so not all of my relations can be reflexive. I just don't understand what it means to say something is 'identical with itself'. You've got the thing - what have you added? |
16999 | A vague identity may seem intransitive, and we might want to talk of 'counterparts' [Kripke] |
Full Idea: When the identity relation is vague, it may seem intransitive; a claim of apparent identity may yield an apparent non-identity. Some sort of 'counterpart' notion may have some utility here. | |
From: Saul A. Kripke (Naming and Necessity notes and addenda [1972], note 18) | |
A reaction: He firmly rejects the full Lewis apparatus of counterparts. The idea would be that a river at different times had counterpart relations, not strict identity. I like the word 'same' for this situation. Most worldly 'identity' is intransitive. |