How to ground (higher-order) identities.

The purity principle requires that identity truths such as "Hesperus is identical to Phosphorus" are grounded. This argument from purity for the groundedness of identity truths for first-order entities can be naturally generalized to higher-order identities like "to be a vixen is to be a female fox....

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Philosophical Studies Vol. 183; no. 9; pp. 2717 - 2747
Autor principal: Lo, Tien-Chun
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Sep2026
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:The purity principle requires that identity truths such as "Hesperus is identical to Phosphorus" are grounded. This argument from purity for the groundedness of identity truths for first-order entities can be naturally generalized to higher-order identities like "to be a vixen is to be a female fox." In this paper, I will examine various accounts of the grounds of identity truths by taking the cases of higher-order identities into consideration. Drawing on some essentialist insights, I will propose a novel account and argue that it offers an attractive explanation of how identities, including both first-order and higher-order cases, are grounded.