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Old 12-11-2009, 08:05 AM   #40
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Ghosts and Mind Copies - The Identity Question

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert View Post
Now I'm curious - which books are those, and in what way are they recognized as "standard"?
Well, when I wanted to check the terminology, I found it in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/identity/ .

In other words, this isn't some new theory that has just been come up with in a recently published book or two; this is well understood philosophical terminology that's in the reference works. What you're asking is like asking "in what way is this phrase 'science fiction' recognized as 'standard'?"

It's really not surprising that there's an established terminology for this. Philosophers have been discussing these issues at least since Plato and Aristotle (Aristotle's "third man" argument against Platonic forms turns on it), and it was a key to Christian eschatological debates of the Middle Ages that gave rise to the doctrines of the particular and universal judgments.

Bill Stoddard
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