THE UNITY OF IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE AS THE ...

Judgment obviously involves two mental acts – the act of distinguishing and the
act of unifying. In the judgment, “S is P,” the difference between S and P presents the
result of the act of distinction, while the copula expresses the act of unification. In a
meaningful judgment, there must be some sense in which S and P are distinct or separate,
and in a true judgment, there must be some sense in which S and P belong together or are
one. The acts of distinction and unification proceed according to certain principles or
rules. In terms of the first rule, we consider the world (by “carving it up” or “uniting” it)
in such a way that S and P refer to distinct features of the world, and in terms of the
second rule, we consider the world in such a way that S and P refer to the same feature or
object in the world. Thus the two acts that occur in judgment represent two – most often
implicit – rules in terms of which we consider a specific region of the world.
Of course this preliminary account of judgment already involves an element of
distortion. It assumes that the world is immediately given to us in some way, and that the
two principles or rules involved in judgment simply present two different ways of
considering that which is immediately given. Here there are two basic options. On one
option, the world immediately presents itself to us as a discrete bundle or collection (of
spatial-temporal points, of properties, of sensations, etc.), and the two principles that
inform the judgment present two different ways of combining what is given to us as a
discrete bundle or collection. Here both principles exist independently from one another.
In other words, we can clarify or spell out each principle without referring to the other.
We can spell out each principle in relation to the discrete manner in which the world is
immediately given to us. Each principle proscribes a manner for combining or
considering that which is immediately given as discrete. One act of synthesis produces
128