Wiggins, “On Being in the Same Place at the Same Time”

One common view is that there are two main ways in which we use the word ‘is’ or, more exactly, the various forms of ‘to be’. There is a ‘predicative’ use for predicating some property of a subject. For example, when I say “She is sleepy” I predicate the property of being sleepy to her. Another use is to express identity, as when we say “He is John Roberts.” Here we are saying that the person demonstrated (e.g., pointed to while saying ‘he’) is John Roberts or, in other words, is identical to John Roberts. Wiggins suggests another use of ‘is’. What exactly is it? (That is, under what conditions is the word ‘is’ being used in this third way?)

Wiggins revises the general principle that no two things can occupy the same space at the same time in two different ways (I’m not talking about S**). What are they? Do they both seem correct?

What is the point of the story of the tree? What is the point of the story of the cat? Notice that Wiggins is trying to establish different points with these stories.