"The Same Thing"

When we say philosophy is about language and clarity, this is what we mean. Pay close attention to this distinction. It is between "same" and "same."

"Wow, that is the same car," might mean that the car is exactly the "same" or it might mean that the car IS the "same" car. This is a distinction we don't pay a lot of attention to when we speak and it is likely to lose someone to whom we are trying to explain something. If we don't care whether they get it, like seemingly we don't (ever), then it's fine. But in those moments when you need to get the message across ...

"That's the same snake!"

The distinction is between what philosophers call qualitative v. numerical. The first is when something looks exactly the same, but there are two things. The second is when there is only one thing.

Let me say that again. The first, qualitative, is when there are two things and they share every property. They "look" and measure exactly the same. That car is the exact same! It came off the production line with the exact same "qualities" as the first. BUT, there are still two cars. They just seem or are exactly the "same."

Numerical is when it is in fact the "same" car. "That was the same car that drove by yesterday!" Which means there is only one car. If you follow the car it will be the same car as the one yesterday with probably the same person driving it and parking it at the same location, etc. There is only ONE car.

What is so important about this? Well, two things. One, it points out how important clarity and distinctions are. It brings up the answer to the question: What is philosophy? Maybe it is just teaching people to be clear. It improves language and it enables one to get their exact message across to another person or to an audience. The second thing is that it distinctions help us practice thinking. Anytime anyone engages in real philosophy they are practicing, just like and athlete might practice or work out his muscles. The brain has to have this practice or it atrophies and is susceptible to vague-ness and herd mentality. Without real rigorous practice, the brain loses the one thing that transcends devolutions like her mentality, it transcends by becoming self-aware.

People prone to or lost in herd mentality are there because they don't know the difference. They didn't sit down one day and ask themselves: "Here are my choices: independence or herd?" They fell into herd thinking and don't know they fell into it and have no idea that they are slipping down a never-ending spiral that ends in fascism and political correctness.

But we digress.

We can see philosophy better and we can practice thinking by using distinctions and considering that they help us and clarify thoughts and communication.

One of those distinctions that is almost lost in language is the one between "same" and "same." It is the distinction between two things appearing and being the "same," and one thing appearing againg and being the "same."