An entity has a life-cycle. It complexifies by interaction with the cosmos. It is part of the cosmos and interacts with the cosmos. An entity is a transient integrated spatio-temporal continuity. It has a form which endures in time for a characteristic duration. It has an intrinsic formal aspect which the mind becomes aware of in its memory. It remains integrated during the modifications of other existential aspects which appear to be insignificant to its essence.

The form as perceived by an awareness may change significantly at different stages of its life-cycle. The form of the biennial Lunaria annua continuously mutates from seed thru to the production of seed. The multiple sequential images of the plant are images of the same entity, not different entities. The entity of a musical note begins when a fluid is made to transmit a vibration, is sustained in the memory of the listener and ends when the vibration ceases. The entity of a mental thought-note to purchase more sugar, begins upon discovering the container to be almost empty, is supposedly filed in a holding compartment in the memory during the journey to town, and has vanished just after the car is parked at the supermarket.

In order to be able to assert the existence of a specific class of entity we must be fully aware of the various forms it can assume during its complete life-cycle. We must also agree as to how much an entity may be modified and yet still be considered to be the same entity. Identifying the existence of Lunaria annua from a photograph of the seed only, would require specialist knowledge.

Division destroys the complexification of an entity and the parts become separate entities. Separating the hammerhead from the handle de-entifies the hammer. To suppose that a hammer is the same entity, even after it has been fitted with a new handle, is to invite obfuscation. The hammerhead is the same entity, the handle is a new entity, and the complexification of the two is a new entity. A hammer that has been altered is not the same hammer and that is all there is to it. Just as dividing a seed capsule in half destroys the capsule, so partitioning a country destroys the country. Some plants are indeed propagated by division, but of course the old plant is changed to produce new ones.

Whilst not directly perceivable, the probable existence of an entity may be inferred by observable effects presumed to be causally related. The probable existence of the Coelacanth species, inferred from seventy million year old fossils, was greatly enhanced by a trawled suspect in recent times. The existence of electrons is based in the main by a huge body of indirect observable effects...so please yourself. Father Xmas has never been observed directly by any sober and reputable investigator. Nevertheless the volumes of decorated wrapping paper and the exponential increase in the quantity of airborne reindeer faeces during the xmas calendar period, is considered by most to be incontrovertible evidence for his existence.