Abstract

A sentence of identity across time, such as "the ship of Theseus at time t is the ship of Theseus at time t'" can be considered true, by presupposing a criterion of reidentification that selects certain properties as conventional essences. In virtue of them, a sentence of this kind can be interpreted without a commitment to moot metaphysical theses about persistence in time. Similarly, sentences of intertextual identity, such as "the Ulysses of the 'Odyssey' is the Ulysses of the 'Divine Comedy'" can be considered true by appealing to conventional essences, intuitively corresponding to the salient features of fictional characters, in a way that avoids an ontological commitment to Meinongian objects.