Entity, but no Identity

Krause, Decio (2007) Entity, but no Identity.

Abstract

Inspired in Quine's well known slogans “To be is to be the value of a variable” and "No entity without identity", we provide a way of enabling that non-individual entities (as characterized in the text) can also be values of variables of an adequate "regimented" language, once we consider a possible meaning of the background theory Quine reports to ground his view. In doing that, we show that there may exist also entities without identity, and emphasize the importance of paying attention to the metalanguage of scientific theories, for they may be also fundamental in determining the theory's ontological commitment.