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Articles

A Kripkean Argument For Goatism

Bill Capra demonstrates that the fact that everything is a goat can be shown by a simple argument which draws on elementary modal principles.

Saul Kripke showed us that identity statements, when true, are necessarily true, assuming that what flanks the identity sign are both rigid designators [names]. But the opposite principle is no less true. Statements of non-identity, when true, are also necessarily true, assuming that what flanks the identity sign are both rigid designators. What could be more intuitive than the principle that if two things are distinct, then they could not have failed to have been distinct? Two things, surely, could not have been one.

‘Goat’ and ‘cat’ are both rigid designators.

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