Full Idea
To ask meaningfully what that thing would be, we must designate it either as a statue or as a piece of clay. What that thing would be, apart from the way it is designated, is a question without meaning.
Gist of Idea
We can only investigate the identity once we have designated it as 'statue' or as 'clay'
Source
Allan Gibbard (Contingent Identity [1975], III)
Book Reference
-: 'Journal of Symbolic Logic' [-], p.194
A Reaction
He obviously has a powerful point, but to suggest that we can only investigate a mysterious object once we have designated it as something sounds daft. It would ruin the fun of archaeology.