I really like this post by Kim about Carl’s notions of identity.
I really agree with this, and like the overall direction, however I
believe that there is a big thing missing.

In my opinion, there has to be a larger circle that encompasses this
entire diagram that represents the community that all three of these
entities belong to!

What community? Well … there has to be some community that
exists since there is some common language, or form of representation,
that each of these entities is using to refer to the
observations. In fact, I do not believe that there is a way that
dinstinctions of identity attributes can exist outside of the context
of some language. Words to describe the uniqueness of the
attribute … to measure and quantify it.

I was reminded of this tonight while talking with my two and half year
old son, Sam. He has long know the meme “ball” which started with
watching the kids playing basket ball ouside. He then assumed
that all balls are a “b-ball” … what he would call them. One
evening while driving home, he saw the moon in the sky and yelled
“Daddy … ball!” pointing at the bright disc. I told him “moon”
and he replied “moon ball.” The birth of a new distinction.
Tonight he saw someone on TV playing with a globe that they took off of
its stand. He said “Ball!” and I replied “globe” … he then
replied “globe ball.”

As we are both making these observations and distinctions, we are only
able to refer to the identity of these objects through a common
language … and common community. This entire ability is an
accumulated experience that we all seem to forget … it is a product
of the community that we grow up and live within.

There ought to be a big circle behind the entire image … and it will
represent the community through which the three of these entities have
come into contact … and the one that give them the ability to express
their observations.