Indiscernibility and the Grounds of Identity

Philosophical Studies:1-23 (forthcoming)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

I provide a theory of the metaphysical foundations of identity: an account what grounds facts of the form a=b. In particular, I defend the claim that indiscernibility grounds identity. This is typically rejected because it is viciously circular; plausible assumptions about the logic of ground entail that the fact that a=b partially grounds itself. The theory I defend is immune to this circularity.

Similar books and articles

Partial grounding, identity, and nothing-over-and-aboveness.Jonas Werner - 2023 - Philosophical Studies 180 (12):3489-3509.
Higher‐order metaphysics.Lukas Skiba - 2021 - Philosophy Compass 16 (10):1-11.
A Note on Identity and Higher Order Quantification.Rafal Urbaniak - 2009 - Australasian Journal of Logic 7:48--55.
Identity and indiscernibility.Jeffrey Ketland - 2011 - Review of Symbolic Logic 4 (2):171-185.
Classicism.Andrew Bacon & Cian Dorr - 2024 - In Peter Fritz & Nicholas K. Jones (eds.), Higher-Order Metaphysics. Oxford University Press. pp. 109-190.
Discernibility and Qualitative Difference.Micah Newman - 2014 - Journal of Philosophical Research 39:43-49.
Higher-Order Metaphysics: An Introduction.Peter Fritz & Nicholas K. Jones - 2024 - In Peter Fritz & Nicholas K. Jones (eds.), Higher-Order Metaphysics. Oxford University Press.
Identity and Indiscernibility.K. Hawley - 2009 - Mind 118 (469):101-119.
Relative identity.Nicholas Griffin - 1977 - Oxford: Clarendon Press.
A Case For Higher-Order Metaphysics.Andrew Bacon - 2024 - In Peter Fritz & Nicholas K. Jones (eds.), Higher-Order Metaphysics. Oxford University Press.

Analytics

Added to PP
2023-11-01

Downloads
593 (#29,790)

6 months
539 (#2,799)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Samuel Elgin
University of California, San Diego

References found in this work

Writing the Book of the World.Theodore Sider - 2011 - Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
On the Plurality of Worlds.David K. Lewis - 1986 - Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell.
Word and Object.Willard Van Orman Quine - 1960 - Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press.
Modal Logic as Metaphysics.Timothy Williamson - 2013 - Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
On what grounds what.Jonathan Schaffer - 2009 - In David Manley, David J. Chalmers & Ryan Wasserman (eds.), Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology. Oxford University Press. pp. 347-383.

View all 91 references / Add more references