2010-09-25, 02:26 PM
Swerve Wrote:If a name is an identifier, then what happens to the name if it has no subject for identification?
a name is just that, a name. its an idea, nothing physical. much like the arbitrary system of time people use to organize the movement of the sun across the sky, much like the calendar does the same for the passing of days, names are just an idea. we are who we are, what we choose to be called is irrelevant. the name exists so long as people are there to remember it, even if it is just a name. I have never met anyone named Bartholomew, but the name exists and continues to because i can remember it. much the same as with a library, it contains written knowledge and ideas from other people. If, say, an incident akin to the destruction of the library at alexandria during the mongol raids in the middle east were to occur, then all that information will be lost.
basically, if a name has nothing to define and no one bothers to use it to define something, then the idea fades from existance with a sigh.