Over Time | Essential change Accidental properties Coherent distinction |
T
ime-based variety. The fact that a distinct thing can change but remain the same poses philosophical questions when considering temporal object identity. If something is the same, it must have identical characteristics. How can the same thing have different properties at different times, and how much change constitutes an identity shift? Perhaps since all things are changing all the time, identity is never fixed. Or perhaps there are different kinds of identity. Some philosophers distinguish between synchronic and diachronic identity. Synchronic identity is an identity existent at a single time. Diachronic identity is an identity constant between something existing at one time and something existing at another. Frequently simple concepts are extremely complicated.
“More important, we should not suppose that we have here any problem about identity. We never have. Identity is utterly simple and unproblematic. Everything is identical to itself; nothing is ever identical to anything except itself. There is never any problem about what makes something identical to itself; nothing can ever fail to be.” - David Lewis
