identity of indiscernibles
E92351
The identity of indiscernibles is a metaphysical principle, associated with Leibniz, stating that no two distinct entities can share all the same properties.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Leibniz’s Law | 3 |
| Leibniz's law | 2 |
| Leibniz’s Law of the Indiscernibility of Identicals | 1 |
| identity of indiscernibles canonical | 1 |
| “The Identity of Indiscernibles” by Max Black | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T775144 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: identity of indiscernibles Context triple: [Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, notableIdea, identity of indiscernibles]
-
A.
On Denoting
"On Denoting" is a seminal 1905 philosophical essay by Bertrand Russell that introduced his influential theory of descriptions and reshaped analytic philosophy of language.
-
B.
The Logical Structure of the World
The Logical Structure of the World is Rudolf Carnap’s seminal 1928 work in which he develops a rigorous, formal reconstruction of all scientific concepts from a phenomenalist basis, serving as a foundational text of logical positivism.
-
C.
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason is a foundational philosophical treatise by Arthur Schopenhauer that analyzes the different ways in which the principle of sufficient reason structures human knowledge and experience.
-
D.
Russell’s paradox
Russell’s paradox is a foundational logical contradiction in naive set theory that reveals problems with sets that contain themselves, leading to major developments in modern logic and the axiomatization of set theory.
-
E.
Tarski's undefinability theorem
Tarski's undefinability theorem is a fundamental result in mathematical logic showing that, in sufficiently strong formal systems, the notion of truth for the language of the system cannot be defined within that same language.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: identity of indiscernibles Target entity description: The identity of indiscernibles is a metaphysical principle, associated with Leibniz, stating that no two distinct entities can share all the same properties.
-
A.
On Denoting
"On Denoting" is a seminal 1905 philosophical essay by Bertrand Russell that introduced his influential theory of descriptions and reshaped analytic philosophy of language.
-
B.
The Logical Structure of the World
The Logical Structure of the World is Rudolf Carnap’s seminal 1928 work in which he develops a rigorous, formal reconstruction of all scientific concepts from a phenomenalist basis, serving as a foundational text of logical positivism.
-
C.
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason is a foundational philosophical treatise by Arthur Schopenhauer that analyzes the different ways in which the principle of sufficient reason structures human knowledge and experience.
-
D.
Russell’s paradox
Russell’s paradox is a foundational logical contradiction in naive set theory that reveals problems with sets that contain themselves, leading to major developments in modern logic and the axiomatization of set theory.
-
E.
Tarski's undefinability theorem
Tarski's undefinability theorem is a fundamental result in mathematical logic showing that, in sufficiently strong formal systems, the notion of truth for the language of the system cannot be defined within that same language.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
metaphysical principle
ⓘ
philosophical principle ⓘ principle of identity ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
identity of indiscernibles
ⓘ
surface form:
Leibniz’s Law
principle of the identity of indiscernibles ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz ⓘ |
| concerns |
distinguishability of entities
ⓘ
identity conditions of objects ⓘ |
| contrastsWith | indiscernibility of identicals ⓘ |
| criticizedBy |
Max Black
ⓘ
Willard Van Orman Quine ⓘ
surface form:
W. V. O. Quine
|
| dependsOn |
notion of property
ⓘ
notion of qualitative property ⓘ |
| field |
metaphysics
ⓘ
philosophy of language ⓘ philosophy of logic ⓘ philosophy of physics ⓘ |
| hasFamousExample | Max Black’s two identical spheres thought experiment ⓘ |
| hasFormulation | for all x and y, if for every property P, P(x) iff P(y), then x = y ⓘ |
| hasInterpretation |
as a contingent principle in some physical theories
ⓘ
as a metaphysical necessity ⓘ |
| hasVariant |
strong identity of indiscernibles
ⓘ
weak identity of indiscernibles ⓘ |
| holdsIn | many classical metaphysical systems ⓘ |
| implies | if two entities share all properties, they are identical ⓘ |
| influenced |
analytic metaphysics
ⓘ
philosophy of science ⓘ |
| logicalStatus | second-order principle ⓘ |
| opposedBy | haecceitism ⓘ |
| questionedIn |
quantum mechanics
ⓘ
statistical mechanics ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
Discourse on Metaphysics
ⓘ
surface form:
Leibnizian metaphysics
haecceity ⓘ individuation ⓘ modal metaphysics ⓘ numerical identity ⓘ possible worlds ⓘ principle of sufficient reason ⓘ qualitative identity ⓘ |
| relatedPrinciple |
law of identity
ⓘ
law of non-contradiction ⓘ |
| statedAs | no two distinct entities can share all the same properties ⓘ |
| status | controversial principle ⓘ |
| supportsView | anti-haecceitism ⓘ |
| timeScope | applies across possible worlds in modal formulations ⓘ |
| usedInArgument |
arguments about individuality in quantum theory
ⓘ
arguments for the necessity of identity ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: identity of indiscernibles Description of subject: The identity of indiscernibles is a metaphysical principle, associated with Leibniz, stating that no two distinct entities can share all the same properties.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Leibniz’s Law
subject surface form:
Theseus's paradox
this entity surface form:
Leibniz's law
this entity surface form:
Leibniz's law
this entity surface form:
Leibniz’s Law
this entity surface form:
Leibniz’s Law of the Indiscernibility of Identicals
subject surface form:
Mind
this entity surface form:
“The Identity of Indiscernibles” by Max Black
this entity surface form:
Leibniz’s Law