Respect goes both ways!

[Vidhyanath Rao]

Larry Trask <larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk> wrote:

> I am completely mystified.  The relation "is the same as" is
> unquestionably transitive. [Rest of the argument deleted]

As philosophers have been aware for two or more thounsands of years, this
argument leads to conclusions which make all science questionable [for one
extreme example, read Nagarjuna].

Am I the same person I was when I wrote the previous sentence? After all,
merely by breathing, the set of atoms that make up me (whatever that
means) has changed. But if you say yes, by a long chain of equivalences,
it must follow that I am the same person that I was when I was conceived.
But was I even a person at that point?