Argument
Indiscernibles
Overview
objects which cannot be distinguished by any property or relation defined by a formula
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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But, from the proposition that _x_ is other than _y,_ it _does_ follow that _x_ has some relational property which _y_ has not; and hence, if the dogma of internal relations be true, it will follow that if _x_ is other than _y, x_ is always also qualitatively different from _y,_ which is the principle of Identity of Indiscernibles. This is, of course, a further objection to the dogma of internal relations, since I…
G. E. Moore, Philosophical Studies
Names Indiscernibles several times; states what Indiscernibles is.
To suppose a difference of volume, then, would be to ascribe an effect to mere position, which we saw to be inadmissible while discussing Free Mobility. Except as regards position, they are geometrically indiscernible, and we may call to our aid the Identity of Indiscernibles to establish their agreement in the one remaining geometrical property of volume. This may seem rather a strange principle to use in…
Bertrand Russell, An essay on the foundations of geometry
Names Indiscernibles twice.
In other words, the supposed absoluteness of space and time would render the action of God wholly without reason, capricious, and at haphazard. Similarly, it contradicts the principle of "indiscernibles," by which Leibniz means the principle of specification, or distinction. According to him, to suppose two things exactly alike, is simply to imagine the same thing twice.
John Dewey, Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding
Names Indiscernibles.
Related ideas
- First-order logic
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- Mathematical logic
- Relation (mathematics)
- Set (mathematics)
- Well-formed formula
- Property (philosophy)
- Identity of indiscernibles
Place in the tradition
Part of Substance theory.