| identity (principle of) | The law that identifies that each thing that exists is limited to being what it is. I frequently use this formulation. Each thing is what it is.1 See LAW (FUNDAMENTAL, PHILOSOPHICAL).
Elaboration As
do the laws of reality, non-contradiction and causality, the law of identity provides a different vantage point on the fact that what is, is. Just as the law of causality focuses on a thing's freedoms, so the law of identity focuses on its limits. The concept "identity" ultimately can be defined only ostensively. Notes 1I'm grateful for what I regard as the benefit that
my definition here has gained from the inspiration of Ayn Rand's "axiom" of identity (which she also calls a "law," as many have before her), which she discusses in her novel, Atlas Shrugged, and in her nonfiction book, Introduction
to Objectivist Epistemology.
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