Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
View full book text
________________
view of the fact that the statements like "2 2=1", or "pqopq", one belonging to mathematics and the other belonging to logic, are called as identity statements. The meaning of the expression '22' and the meaning of the expression 'l' are one and the same. In any statement where one of these expressions occurs, the other could be substituted for it without any alteration of meaning. This is independent of what is there in the world corresponding to '22' and '1'. Similar is the case with 'p q' and '-pal. There is some difference between the identity statements of mathematics and those of logic, but that is not important for our present discussion.
It is important at present to appreciate that the statement, "The morning star is the evening star," is not of the same type as "2 2 1" and "pq-pq". The latter two statements are not used for identification of anything in the world, whereas the former one is used precisely for this purpose. It is an astronomical fact that the planet Venus is both the morning star as well as the evening star. It is called an identification statement in order to mark it off from its counterpart, namely the statement that they are two discernible entities. "This is that Devadatta" would be another example of identification statement. It is an empirical fact that Devadatta seen then at Pataliputra is the self-same Devadatta seen now at Hastinapura. But again there is difference between "The morning star is the evening star" and "This is that Devadatta." It is the planet Venus that appears both as the morning star and as the evening star. It could be identified in some way other than as the morning star or as the evening star. "The morning star' and 'the evening star' are descriptions of some thing, which could have many other descriptions also like 'the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days'. "Venus' is the name given to that something, which has existence in space and time. There is continuity of the spatio-temporal route from the planet Venus appearing as the morning star to its appearing as the evening star and to its appearing as the morning star again.
The word 'is' is ambiguous. It is used in at least three different senses, such as (i) in the sense of existence as in the statement, "Dharma is (there)," (ii) in the sense of predication as in the statement, "Grass is green," and (iii) in the sense of identity the examples of which are under discussion. We sought to show above that identity statements are not alike in respect of their function in language.
When we come to the statement, "This is that Devadatta," we find that there is nothing which was then called 'that Devadatta' and now called this Devadatta' other than Devadatta himself preserving unity, continuity and identity amidst spatio-temporal changes. It is not necessary to suppose Devadattahood as the substratum of the spatio-temporal predicates. "This is that Devaddata" is unlike the statement "Everest is Sagaramatha". The latter is more like the statement, "The morning star is the evening star."
223
