How Do We Know the Names of the Stars?

Recent posts have exhibited a fundamental confusion or ambiguity concerning the basic Postulate of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity SR stating: 

• The speed of light is the same for all (inertial) observers.     (P)

The question is if this is an analytic statement or definition/convention/agreement/stipulation made by human minds and as such has no value as true or false, or if it is a synthetic statement about some physical reality which may be true or false. 

We may compare with the following innocent question, which can be posed by an innocent child when looking into the night sky:

• How can we know the names of the stars (when they are so silent and far away)?

The natural answer from an adult is that the stars have been given names by human minds and so represent definition/convention/agreement/stipulation as analytic statement. 

But in the mind of the child it may also appear to be possible that somehow the names of the stars have been assigned by some Creator as synthetic statement and that it is up to human minds to try to somehow figure out the names. To a child it would be like asking the name of a new person unknown to the child. Of course the idea that somehow stars have names on their own independent of human name-giving appears arcane to an adult, but the idea is possible. Of course, a child would not direct a question about name to a dog. The question (to an adult) would instead be: What is the dog called?

Let us now return to (P): 

1. As analytic statement as definition/convention/agreement/stipulation, it corresponds to the SI standard defining meter in terms of travel time of light. This corresponds to stars being given names by human minds.  
2. As synthetic statement it means that somehow light propagates with its own speed independent of human minds.  This corresponds to stars somehow having names independent of human name-giving.   

We understand that 2 is strange and can only reflect a very innocent childish mind. Nevertheless, this is the interpretation as basic postulate of SR following Einstein: The constancy of the speed of light for all observers is not simply an agreement as 1, but a physical fact which Einstein assumes to be true. 

Einstein thus views (P) to both be analytic and synthetic. But this is contradictory since analytic and synthetics statements have different nature as concerns being true or false. This is the root to all the confusion and mystery surrounding SR.

Recall that with the 2019 SI meter standard, (P) is definitely analytic and not synthetic. To Einstein in 1905, (P) was synthetic. Things have changed. SR is no longer needed after 2019. Physics has become simpler. Einstein can rest in peace.