Necessity of identity

In modal logic, the necessity of identity is the thesis that for every object x and object y, if x and y are the same object, it is necessary that x and y are the same object. The thesis is best known for its association with Saul Kripke, who published it in 1971, although it was first derived by the logician Ruth Barcan Marcus in 1947, and later, in simplified form, by W. V. O. Quine in 1953.