Identity across times and stories

The structural similarity between sentences of reidentification through time and sentences of reidentification across stories is noted and it is argued that these sentences should be analyzed in the same fashion and with as little ontological commitments as possible. This is achieved by focusing on criteria of reidentification across time and stories, understood as mechanisms that deliver "conventional essences," i.e., properties that allow us to view the world as if it contained objects that endure through time or fictional characters that can be present in different stories. There is no commitment to such entities, however, because the relevant sentences are understood as being about conventional essences rather than really about the problematic entities in question.