identity

Relation each thing bears to itself alone

EntityQ254474

Also known as itself · identity relationship · identity relation · philosophical identity · ideal identity · sameness

Subclass of: reflexive relation
, relation
, intensive

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

In metaphysics, identity is the relation each thing bears only to itself. The notion of identity gives rise to many philosophical problems, including the identity of indiscernibles, and questions about change and personal identity over time. It is important to distinguish between qualitative identity and numerical identity. For example, consider two children with identical bicycles engaged in a race while their mother is watching. The two children have the same bicycle in one sense and the same mother in another sense. This article is mainly concerned with numerical identity, which is the stricter notion.

Overview

All data

20 statements · 20% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Opposite of: other criterion used: complement
difference
Different from: identity
qualitative identity

On other databases

13 identifiers linking identity across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

20%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 28, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). identity (Q254474). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/identity-Q254474