Re: More on identifiers

On Jun 5, 10:05 pm, "Walter Mitty" <wami..._at_verizon.net> wrote:

> (Incidentally, the other response where the comment was made that two
> electrons must occupy different states leads to a slippery slope.

According to current theories of particle physics all electrons in the universe are identical in the sense of exchange symmetry and yet no two electrons occupy the same quantum state. I'm not sure how stating the facts puts one on a slippery slope! As I said electrons are all identical on one sense and all different in another. I have far more confidence in the mathematical descriptions than in people's varying interpretation of what identity means.

> Using
> state to identify implies that a change of state is in effect a change of
> identity. This is related to Brian's claim that all attributes of an entity
> are mutable. (Am I misinterpreting your claim, Brian?)

I think it's better to simply say that the concept of identity requires definition on a case by case basis or else we're at the basic paradox of saying that something is the same as it changes. In the end it's nothing deeper than an equivalence relation. Often there are many different equivalence relations that can be defined. The electron is an example where there are two good candidates for defining equivalence relations. Received on Sat Jun 06 2009 - 05:51:56 CEST