Edu:Rigidity

Rigidity

Rigidity is a property of relations/properties, a meta-property. It is defined in terms of modal logic.

A property of an entity is essential to that entity if it must be true of it in every possible world, i.e. if it necessarily holds for that entity.

A property is rigid if it is essential to all its possible instances; an instance of a rigid property cannot stop being an in-stance of that property in a different world.

Rigidity as a meta-property is not “inherited” by sub-properties of properties that carry it. [ Guarino & Welty, 2003(?) ]