'Identical Twins' Are Two Wrong Words

As human beings, we tend to substitute one word for the other. We think what we are doing or saying is right but in reality it is not. I have heard many people call twins ‘identical twins’. I still find it hard to understand what they mean by ‘identical’. I am sure we are all familiar with identity cards and we know that its sole purpose is to say who we are, what we do, or our country of birth. 

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This should ordinarily suggests to us that my identity as smyle is different from your identity as eurogee. But what people do not understand is that identity is not something two people share together. 

In logic, there are three laws of thought namely, law of contradiction, law of excluded middle and law of identity. Law of identity states that everything in the universe is identical with itself. That is, every single entity has particular feature that it shares with no one.

This law is popularly known as A = A 

Every single entity has particular feature that is part of its existence.  Take for instance, an author published a book. This book is printed with a machine and the book is multiplied in the process of reprinting. Now we are having two or more books. These books have same contents (text) but the texture of the books and the colors are not the same. By this, I mean, the quality of the color will reduce in the process of printing the books. Some will be ticker and some lighter. Also, the qualities or the textures of these books are not the same. In this process of printing and reprinting, we have one author book but the book has become ‘books’ of the same book! That is, each book has distinct qualities.

To say an entity exist and it has an identity, it means the entity in question is in existence. To deny the existence of such entity is to talk about ‘nothing’. Having an identity means you have single identity that is particular to you alone.

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It is possible for an entity to have more than one characteristics or features. But the characteristics and features are still part of its existence. 

For instance, an object can be both black and white but not in the same context. You cannot say for instance that an object is ‘blackwhite’! A black table, for instance, is first a table before the color identification comes in. So the black and white are distinct. They are not the table but part of it. They have their own identities.

You cannot refer to someone as Black and White. A person is either Black or White or none. To say a man is Black and at the same time White is to contradict yourself because no black is white and no white is black. These are two distinct properties and they have their particular identities.

When you see two people or twins that look alike, do not say they are identical twins. What they have is resemblance! The twins resemble each other. They are not identical because identity is a property of every single thing. The more reason your thumbprint is not shared by any other person. Your thumbprint is your identity. It is part of you and something only you have. 

Two people can be twins by virtue of staying in the same womb for 9 months. But to say these two different human beings are identical is to literally say they have same qualities, do things same way, like and hate same things, reason the same way, eat the same way and at the same time, etc. It is one thing to have twins, it is another thing for them to have their identities. 

The logic here is that two things can look alike, people can resemble each other but they are not identical because identity is a particular characteristic or feature that only one person has to himself. 

Thanks for reading. Your boy @smyle the philosopher.