An Enhanced Account of Relative Identity: Double-Reference Starting Point and Dual-Track Feature

Publication Date

1-1-2023

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

History and Philosophy of Logic

DOI

10.1080/01445340.2023.2229611

Abstract

This article gives a holistic re-examination of the semantic content and syntactic structure of the concept of relative identity: it suggests and explains an expanded and enhanced dual-track characterization of relative identity. It is expanded in this sense: its due coverage is not narrowly restricted to the equal-status case of identity statements (the symmetric case for identity simplex) but also includes the category-assimilating case (the asymmetric case for identity complex), both of which are unified by the shared semantic core content of relative identity. It is enhanced in this sense: it is intended to give a more refined characterization of relative identity for the sake of enhancing our understanding of the structure and content of real-life relative-identity statements in people’s basic employment of language in view of the relation between thought, language, and the world.

Keywords

Double reference, relative identity, semantic-sensitivity, symmetric case for identity simplex and asymmetric case for identity complex

Department

Philosophy

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