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The Same F 1 but a Different F 2 – with Absolute Identity

  • Robert Francescotti EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: February 17, 2025

Abstract

Here I present an analysis of what it is for an x and a y to be the same F. Unlike the Fregean Analysis (FRE), according to which ‘x is the same F as y’ is equivalent to ‘x is an F, y is an F, and x = y’, the analysis presented and defended here allows that there are possible cases in which x and y are the same F 1 but not the same F 2 even though x is an F 2 and y is an F 2 . The analysis offered here, FRE+, retains the conditions that FRE deems are necessary for being the same F while adding a further condition to allow that the same F 1 can be a different F 2 . Although FRE+ is compatible with there being such cases, FRE+ shares with FRE that the identity mentioned in the analysis is nothing other than absolute identity. Thus, FRE+ offers a way to allow that the same F 1 can be a different F 2 while avoiding conflict with the traditionally accepted logic of identity, and I argue without conflict with the Indiscernibility of Identicals in particular.


Corresponding author: Robert Francescotti, Department of Philosophy, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA, E-mail:

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Received: 2024-08-20
Accepted: 2024-11-07
Published Online: 2025-02-17
Published in Print: 2025-04-28

© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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