Names do not at first sight appear to have much meaning, until one realizes that every name attached to a face is the only possible name for that face. This realization comes, of course, only after one has learnt the name attached to a particular face. In the unlikely event that person A chooses to change his name to B, we say that the only possible name for person A/B is A-B, with a hyphen between the old and the new. If he then chooses to change his name yet again to C, we say that the only possible name for him is A-B-C, and so on.
Thus we see that every name with which a person may be afflicted in his lifetime clings to him inseparably; in other words, if the B in A-B-C did not exist, it is as if person A-B-C were never born. The very fact of his existence depends on the existence of the B, and everything that happened in the universe before his birth led ineluctably to his being named B in some intermediate period in his life. To suggest otherwise is akin to saying that the abovementioned period in time did not exist! This is clearly absurd. The same argument can be made with respect to A or C, or indeed with anyone’s name.
To make this point more concrete, suppose there existed a person named Ambrose Dickersnapper, whose name had hitherto been believed by someone desirous of knowing his name to be Bob. If Dickersnapper’s name turned out in fact to be Bob, then that would be proof that he had never existed, and never could exist—not even in the imagination of the person seeking his name.
Suppose in the same vein that you guess that the name of a random passerby is Alice. You will observe that the passerby’s name will be Alice if and only if her name is in fact Alice. If you guessed Shelly, and discovered that her name was in fact Shelly, then nothing in the world could save her from ceasing to exist, since her name cannot be Alice and Shelly at the same time, except in hyphenated form.
If such contradictions were permitted, then anything at all would be possible. The natural law that prevents contradictions such as this also defines our unique reality, as symbolized by the names by which we know each other. To repeat the profound conclusion whose infinite form we have just glimpsed, no person’s name can ever be other than that which it is; for if it were, or if it even could be anything else, then everything would be everything else—or equivalently, nothing would be or could be.
Thus we see that every name with which a person may be afflicted in his lifetime clings to him inseparably; in other words, if the B in A-B-C did not exist, it is as if person A-B-C were never born. The very fact of his existence depends on the existence of the B, and everything that happened in the universe before his birth led ineluctably to his being named B in some intermediate period in his life. To suggest otherwise is akin to saying that the abovementioned period in time did not exist! This is clearly absurd. The same argument can be made with respect to A or C, or indeed with anyone’s name.
To make this point more concrete, suppose there existed a person named Ambrose Dickersnapper, whose name had hitherto been believed by someone desirous of knowing his name to be Bob. If Dickersnapper’s name turned out in fact to be Bob, then that would be proof that he had never existed, and never could exist—not even in the imagination of the person seeking his name.
Suppose in the same vein that you guess that the name of a random passerby is Alice. You will observe that the passerby’s name will be Alice if and only if her name is in fact Alice. If you guessed Shelly, and discovered that her name was in fact Shelly, then nothing in the world could save her from ceasing to exist, since her name cannot be Alice and Shelly at the same time, except in hyphenated form.
If such contradictions were permitted, then anything at all would be possible. The natural law that prevents contradictions such as this also defines our unique reality, as symbolized by the names by which we know each other. To repeat the profound conclusion whose infinite form we have just glimpsed, no person’s name can ever be other than that which it is; for if it were, or if it even could be anything else, then everything would be everything else—or equivalently, nothing would be or could be.
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