ABSTRACT
The world in which we live is made of things. Things are thus centrally important to our thought, and for that reason are difficult to think about clearly. Much philosophical perplexity has been generated by this double sense of the word 'thing' – much philosophy has been devoted to proving, or to controverting, that things are not the only things to exist. Things are thus thought of as unintelligible, matter as incomprehensible. But on another line of thought, rationality is regarded as a mark of objectivity. Things are the same for everybody, and are most thing-like when they can be understood to be the same everywhere and for ever. Each thing must be capable of being referred to uniquely on more than one occasion, and therefore some things at least must continue through time, and be not only referred to but identified in experience on different occasions.
