 Here is one way of making clear why it does not follow. According to what we may call the identity convention two tokens of the same name standardly refer to the same thing. So in, for example, the sentence ‘Napoleon admires Napoleon’ we are, unless otherwise indicated, to take the second occurrence of ‘Napoleon’ to have a referent identical with the referent of the first. In the case of ‘Napoleon admires Napoleon’ the relation Napoleon is said to stand in to himself is different from the relation governing the repeated use of a proper name. In the one case it is the relation of admiration. In the other it is identity. But, suppose they were the same relation. Suppose, the repeated use of a proper name were governed, not by the identity convention, but by what we may call the admiration convention. According to the admiration convention a subsequent occurrence of a proper name in a sentence should be taken to refer to something only if it is admired by the referent of the first occurrence. In the light of this, admittedly bizarre, convention what should we say about the truth value of ‘Napoleon admires Napoleon’. Well if the second occurrence of ‘Napoleon’ refers, it will refer to someone admired by the referent of the first occurrence. So, if the admiration convention is adhered to, ‘Napoleon admires Napoleon’ will, if it expresses any proposition, will express a true one. Despite that, ‘Napoleon admires Napoleon’ expresses a contingent truth. Likewise, ‘a=a’ expresses a true proposition if it expresses any proposition at all, since the relation governing the repeated use of ‘a’ is the same as the one that a is said to stand in to a. But, as with ‘Napoleon admires Napoleon’ given the admiration convention, there is no reason to suppose that the truth expressed by ‘a=a’ is a necessary one. A like observation applies to ‘a is identical with itself’.