| Description (English) |
An Instance of some Type is conceived of as having a distinct Identity. Its Identity persists across time and remains constant for an Instance despite arbitrary changes in other attributes of the Instance. Establishing Identity answers the question "which", and is often answered by saying that an Instance is the same or different from a previously mentioned instance (see Identicality), or by deictic reference ("that one"), etc. Identity is not the same as appearance or name (if the Instance even has such), although these attributes of the Instance may be useful in establishing Identity. Identity can be established knowing the totality of the history of an Instance; however, this is impractical and usually proxies like name and appearance are used. For the Identity of humans, history sufficient to establish Identity can usually be satisfactorily established by documents associated with the person, often with information like appearance and name, though use of such documents leads to the problem of multiple identities, only one of which is considered legitimate or "true" in a given context. |
