Identity Statements Research Articles

Rigidity and Contingency

At least since Kripke (1980) it has been generally accepted that true identity statements involving proper names are necessarily true. This view is allegedly supported by our most ordinary, pretheoretic intuitions according to which ordinary proper names are rigid designators. This paper challenges the established status of this view. Section 1 develops the context of the debate by presenting the intuitions of rigidity and of contingency of identity found among competent speakers. Section 2 shows how the latter constitute a serious problem for the received view, one that cannot be easily ignored. Section 3 considers three available proposals intended to solve the problem and shows why they fail. Section 4 briefly describes a way to make compatible the intuitions of rigidity and of contingency, a consequence of which is the acceptance of the possibility of contingently true identity statements. Finally, section 5 considers some philosophical consequences of accepting such a view.

A Magnificent Faith: Art and Identity in Lutheran Germany, by Bridget Heal

Bridget Heal begins and ends this excellent book with that outstanding baroque building, the Lutheran Frauenkirche in Dresden, whose foundation stone was laid in 1726 at a time when the Elector of Saxony, Friedrich August I, and his heir had both converted to Catholicism in order to be elected as kings of Poland. Heal’s stated aim ‘is to explain how and why Lutheranism—a confession that insisted upon the pre-eminence of God’s Word—became … a faith whose adherents sought to captivate Christians’ hearts and minds through their eyes as well as through their ears’ (pp. 1–2). In this she succeeds convincingly, examining theological and devotional literature, church architecture, altar-pieces, epitaphs and woodcuts, using the visual to tease out ‘what it meant to be a Lutheran at different times and in different places’ (p. 6). The introductory chapter begins in the Wittenberg of Luther, Melanchthon and Cranach and explains how Luther himself came to see images as one of the means of communicating the gospel message and of awakening the believer’s emotions. He also disapproved of iconoclasm because it was associated with Calvinism and with such radical figures as Karlstadt. The rest of the book is divided into three sections, the first of which, entitled ‘The Confessional Image’, discusses how images related to confessional identity in Brandenburg and Saxony and how Lutheranism positioned itself in relation to both Catholicism and Calvinism. Focusing first on Saxony, Heal shows how crucial the local authority figure was, whether territorial ruler, pastor or town magistrate, when it came to preserving or destroying images and church furniture. In Saxony, for instance, the Albertine Electors tended to preserve such things as Michael Wolgemut’s fifteenth-century altarpiece in Zwickau, whereas the Ernestine dukes, espousing the Gnesio-Lutheran cause, cleansed the churches in their territory of what they regarded as papist and idolatrous objects. Heal demonstrates how, by the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, religious images such as altarpieces and crucifixes ‘served as confessional markers’ to distance Lutheranism from Calvinism (p. 95). Among the many astonishing and illuminating illustrations in the book is the altarpiece commissioned by Hans Friedrich von Stuttgerheim (d. 1616) for the village church in Drahnsdorf near Luckau in Lower Lusatia. In it a fifteenth-century statue of the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven is placed within a richly decorated frame, surmounting two clear statements of Lutheran confessional identity, one in Latin and one in the vernacular (p. 95).

The Son of God and Trinitarian Identity Statements

Classical Trinitarians claim that Jesus—the Son of God—is truly God and that there is only one God and the Father is God, the Spirit is God, and the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct. However, if the identity statement that ‘the Son is God’ is understood in the sense of numerical identity, logical incoherence seems immanent. Yet, if the identity statement is understood according to an ‘is’ of predication then it lacks accuracy and permits polytheism. Therefore, we argue that there is another sense of ‘is’ needed in trinitarian discourse that will allow the Christian to avoid logical incoherence while still fully affirming all that is meant to be affirmed in the confession ‘Jesus is God.’ We suggest a sense of ‘is’ that meets this need.

Numismática y propaganda almohade

Los almohades utilizaron sus monedas para difundir sus mensajes religiosos e ideológicos, no constituyendo una excepción en este aspecto. La nueva forma cuadrada, la metrología y las leyendas de la numismática almohade reflejan la situación histórica y sus posicionamientos sociales y políticos. La forma cuadrada equipara la moneda con su correspondiente dineral y fue un elemento de identificación política. Las leyendas religiosas proclaman la teología almohade de la unicidad de Dios y el lema de la dinastía. Las leyendas genealógicas tuvieron gran importancia para evidenciar la legitimidad dinástica del soberano.

When national symbols divide: the case of pan-Catalanism and the Països Catalans

ABSTRACTShared symbols are an essential element in nationalist mobilisation. National symbols provide perhaps the strongest, clearest statement of national identity and are socially constructed. The effectiveness of these symbols will determine the success or failure of a political and cultural project. The effectiveness of cultural and political symbols can be seen through examination of the project of pan-Catalanism, the Països Catalans (the Catalan-speaking countries). This political project is rather unusual in the nationalist literature in being unable to advance beyond an embryonic stage. While cultural affinity can be determined within the Catalan-speaking territories, a wider claim to pan-Catalan political identity has foundered. This article argues that the absence of a shared attachment to national symbols in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearics and other Catalan-speaking areas, provides the principal explanation why successful nation building has not been achieved.

Neurčitá Identita v Kvantové Oblasti a Strukturní Realismus

The paper deals with the problem whether there can exist indeterminate identity. If one accepts Evans’s argument, then statements about indeterminate identity can be true, but only those, in which at least one of the singular terms does not refer determinately. One does not have to explain all vagueness as semantic, i.e. as indeterminacy of meaning, because some such statements can be true on account of indeterminacy of reality. This can be shown in the particular quantum case introduced by Lowe concerning the identity of an absorbed and emitted electron. The singular terms within the identity statements in this example are to be understood in the way pointed out by Abasnezhad and in the manner Barnes and Williams take names in statements of identity between Kilimanjaro and one of the precise aggregates of particles of which the mountain consists: One of the names refers indeterminately. This indeterminacy is of the kind belonging to indefinite descriptions. The issue of individuality on quantum level can be understood using resources of structural realism of James Ladyman.

Descriptive problems in defining the category of copulas: syntactic and semantic distribution of the ingressive copulas VIRSTI and TAPTI

Descriptive problems in defining the category of copulas: syntactic and semantic distribution of the ingressive copulas VIRSTI and TAPTI

La noción de identidad en los "Tópicos"

Aristotle's notion of identity is investigated on this article. This investigation is focused on Top. I7, where different ways of using of the word 'same' are analysed. Two major claims are made. First of all, Aristotle does not seem to be committed to hold that there are different types of identity. The second point concerns contingent identity. What Aristotle says about numerical identity does not commit him to the view that identity can be contingent and it is consistent with the claim that identity statements are in all cases necessary.

Stanowisko nieredukcyjne w sporze o tożsamość osobową

In the debate on personal identity, different criteria of identity are proposed and defended. The criteria of identity have usually been taken to state the necessary and sufficient conditions of identity and are interpreted as providing truth conditions for relevant identity statements. The Simple View of personal identity is the thesis that there are no noncircular and informative metaphysical criteria of identity for persons. The paper intends to first deliver a precise and general formulation of the Simple View, and, second, to present the various arguments in favour of the doctrine in question. It argues that there are no other facts of the matter than identity itself which could serve as the truth-conditions of identity statements. The considerations presented in the paper lead to the conclusion that, although the Simple View is faced with many theoretical difficulties, it is still a lively intellectual position in the debate on personal identity.

Individualized teaching practices in the Swedish comprehensive school from 1980 to 2014 in relation to education reforms and curricula goals

ABSTRACTThe study investigated changes in teaching practices and classroom processes, seen from a student perspective, before and after the education reforms of the 1990s, and the introduction of the Swedish 1994 National Curriculum for comprehensive school. The total time pass stretches from 1980 to 2014.The focus is on comparisons of results based on identical statements in questionnaires, given to six nationally representative student cohorts within the ongoing Evaluation Through Follow-up project, who attended grade 6 or grade 9.The findings show the working atmosphere in the Swedish grade-6 schools to have improved during the 1980s, pointing also to changes in the teacher role. Teacher-led class teaching was in less use than in previous decades, but still the most dominating teaching condition, with an increase from 2005 to 2011. In grade 9, the changes are reverse, with a tendency for reduced time for teacher-led class teaching from 2003 onwards, and the use of less group work and fewer tests. From the mid-1990s onwards an explosive spread of individual work was identified in both grade 6 and grade 9.The changes in teaching practices and classroom processes are discussed in the light of individualization, curricula goals and education reforms.

Multipropositionalism and Necessarya Posterioriidentity Statements

AbstractWe provide an account of necessarya posterioriidentity statements that relies upon Perry's multipropositionalism. On our account an utterance of, e.g., ‘Hesperus is Phosphorus',semantically makes availableseveral propositions, one of which is necessary (anda priori) and another of which isa posteriori(and contingent). Since our view resemblestwo‐dimensionalism, one might assume that it is undermined by the sorts ofnesting argumentsthat Soames and others have raised against two‐dimensionalism. We demonstrate, however, that our account is immune to such nesting arguments.

Prior knowledge influences interpretations of eyewitness confidence statements: ‘The witness picked the suspect, they must be 100% sure%

ABSTRACTWhen an eyewitness identifies a suspect from a lineup, it is important to know how certain they are about the decision. Even though eyewitnesses are likely to express certainty with words, past research shows that verbal confidence statements (e.g. ‘I’m pretty sure’) are prone to systematic misinterpretation. Until now, no one has examined how an evaluator's prior knowledge, such as which lineup member is the police suspect, influences their interpretation of eyewitness confidence about a lineup identification. Experiments 1 and 3 show that participants perceived the identical statement of confidence as meaning a higher and lower level of certainty, respectively, when the eyewitness's selection either matched or mismatched the police's suspect. Experiment 2 shows that these effects generally persist when the bias manipulation is manipulated between-subjects. Finally, Experiment 3 finds that clarifying the witness's statement with numeric information (e.g. I’m 80% sure) does not eliminate the influence of biasing information.

A Stage-Theoretical Account of Diachronic Identity

Abstract Diachronic identity is understood as an identity holding between something existing at one time and something existing at another time. On the stage view, however, ordinary objects are instantaneous stages that do not exist at other times so diachronic identity is, at best, problematic. On account proposed here a name does not, as Sider and others suggest, denote a stage concurrent with its utterance. Rather, at any time, t, a name of an ordinary object designates a stage-at-t as its primary referent and refers indeterminately over it and all and only those stages counterpart-related to it—its reference class at t. At any time, t, a at t1 is the same object as b at t2 iff for every stage x counterpart-related to a’s stage-at t and every stage y counterpart-related to b’s stage-at-t, x=y. Diachronic identity statements, therefore, assert strict identities—between concurrent stages. Ordinarily names select the same reference classes at every time so, in ordinary cases, identity statements are not ‘occasional’. In fission cases names select different reference classes at different times. Where a becomes b and c, at any pre-fission time ‘a’, ‘b’, and ‘c’ have same the primary referent and so select the same reference class—therefore, before fission b is the same object as c. At any post-fission time ‘b’ and ‘c’ select different reference classes—so after fission b is not the same object as c. Identity is not occasional but, in extraordinary cases, identity statements are—because reference is.

Frege's Puzzle is About Identity After All

Many philosophers have argued or taken for granted that Frege's puzzle has little or nothing to do with identity statements. I show that this is wrong, arguing that the puzzle can only be motivated relative to a thinker's beliefs about the identity or distinctness of the relevant object. The result is important, as it suggests that the puzzle can be solved, not by a semantic theory of names or referring expressions as such, but simply by a theory of identity statements. To show this, I sketch a framework for developing solutions of this sort. I also consider how this result could be implemented by two influential solutions to Frege's puzzle, Perry's referential‐reflexivism and Fine's semantic relationism.

Blum’s Puzzle and the Analiticity of Kripkean Identity Statements

We rely on a recent puzzle by Alex Blum to offer a new argument for the old Fitch’s thesis that what we learn a posteriori in Kripkean identity statements like ‘Tully is Cicero’ is contingent and what is not contingent in such statements is analytical, hence hardly a posteriori.

Once More Unto the Breach: Type B Physicalism, Phenomenal Concepts, and the Epistemic Gap

ABSTRACTType B, or a posteriori, physicalism is the view that phenomenal-physical identity statements can be necessarily true, even though they cannot be known a priori—and that the key to understanding their status is to understand the special features of our phenomenal concepts, those concepts of our experiential states acquired through introspection. This view was once regarded as a promising response to anti-physicalist arguments that maintain that an epistemic gap between phenomenal and physical concepts entails that phenomenal and physical properties are distinct. More recently, however, many physicalists have lost confidence in the view, and have proposed less promising defences of physicalism—or have become outright sceptical about its prospects. I argue here that these physicalists have underestimated the resources of Type B physicalism and are thereby retreating too quickly—or fighting battles that have already been won.

Rivalry and fan aggression: why acknowledging conflict reduces tension between rival fans and downplaying makes things worse

ABSTRACTResearch question: In order to reduce fan aggression surrounding rivalry games, team sport organizations often try to placate fans by downplaying the importance of the game (e.g. ‘the derby is not a war’). Drawing on the intergroup conflict literature, this research derives dual identity statements and examines their effectiveness in reducing fan aggressiveness compared to the managerial practice of downplaying rivalry.Research methods: Three field experimental studies (one face-to-face survey and two online surveys) tested the hypotheses. Established rivalries in the German soccer league Bundesliga served as the empirical setting of the studies. The data were analyzed using ANCOVA and linear regression analyses.Results and findings: Dual identity statements reduce fan aggressiveness compared to both downplay statements and a no-statement control condition, independent of team identification and trait aggression. Importantly, the managerial practice of downplaying rivalry appears to be counterproductive. It produces even higher levels of fan aggressiveness than making no statement, an effect caused by psychological reactance.Implications: Sport organizations should not alienate their fan base by attempting to play down the importance of rivalry, which is an integral part of fan identity. Instead, they should strengthen the supporters’ unique identity (as fans of a particular team) while at the same time facilitating identification with the rival at a superordinate level (e.g. as joint fans of a region).

Counteridenticals and dream reports

Counteridenticals are counterfactual conditional sentences whose antecedent clausescontain an identity statement, e.g. If I were you, I’d buy the blue dress. Here, we argue thatcounteridenticals are best analyzed along the lines of dream reports. After showing that counteridenticalsand dream reports exhibit striking grammatical and perceptual parallels, we suggestan analysis of counteridenticals with Percus and Sauerland’s (2003) analysis of dreamreports. Following their proposal, we propose to make use of concept generators, realized ascentered worlds. To this end, we argue that the presence of if licenses the presence of an imagine-operator, which constitutes the attitude the antecedent clause ‘x be-PAST y’ is taken under;The speaker predicates, in the imagine mode, the consequent property to his/her imagined self.To capture the different degrees of identification between the subject and the predicate of theidentity statement of counteridenticals’ antecedents observed in the literature, we incorporatePercus and Sharvit’s (2014) notion of asymmetric be into the analysis. This proposal has severaladvantages over existing analyses (Lakoff, 1996; Kocurek, 2016) of counteridentical meaning,as it both explains the different degrees of identification observed for counteridenticals andcorrectly predicts the parallels between counteridenticals and dream reports.Keywords: Counteridenticals, counterfactuals, dream reports, pronoun movement

The homestead as fortress: Fact or folklore?

Houses are quintessential statements of identity, encoding elements of personal and social attitudes, aspirations and realities. As functional containers for human life, they reflect the exigencies of their construction and occupation, as well as the alterations that ensued as contexts, occupants and uses changed. As older houses endure into subsequent social contexts, they become drawn into later symbolic landscapes, connoting both past and present social relationships simultaneously and connecting the two via the many ways they are understood and represented in the present. As historical archaeologist Anne Yentsch has argued: ‘Many cultural values, including ideas about power relationships and social inequality, are expressed within the context of the stories surrounding houses’. This paper is one attempt to investigate the stories surrounding a ruined pastoral homestead in central northern Queensland in light of relationships between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people on the frontier.

Comments on Stephen Yablo’s Aboutness

This paper concerns Yablo’s theory of asserted content as it is developed in his new book Aboutness. Yablo’s central idea is that in order to specify the asserted content of a sentence, we have to subtract those parts of its full semantic content that concern irrelevant subject matters. The paper argues that it is doubtful whether Yablo’s account successfully deals with its most basic envisaged application: to account for a difference of apparent truth value in cases of ordinary presupposition failure. In addition, some doubts are raised concerning the success of the extension of Yablo’s account to fictional talk, the informativeness of identity statements, and ontological commitments of number talk.