De Dicto And De Re
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''De dicto'' and ''de re'' are two phrases used to mark a distinction in
intensional statement In linguistics, logic, philosophy, and other fields, an intension is any property or quality connoted by a word, phrase, or another symbol. In the case of a word, the word's definition often implies an intension. For instance, the intensions of ...
s, associated with the intensional operators in many such statements. The distinction is used regularly in
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
and in
philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, ...
. The literal translation of the phrase "''de dicto''" is "about what is said", whereas ''de re'' translates as "about the thing". The original meaning of the Latin locutions may help to elucidate the living meaning of the phrases, in the distinctions they mark. The distinction can be understood by examples of intensional contexts of which three are considered here: a context of thought, a context of desire, and a context of
modality Modality may refer to: Humanities * Modality (theology), the organization and structure of the church, as distinct from sodality or parachurch organizations * Modality (music), in music, the subject concerning certain diatonic scales * Modaliti ...
.


Context of thought

There are two possible interpretations of the sentence "Peter believes someone is out to get him". On one interpretation, 'someone' is unspecific and Peter suffers a general paranoia; he believes that it is true that a person is out to get him, but does not necessarily have any beliefs about who this person may be. What Peter believes is that the predicate 'is out to get Peter' is satisfied. This is the ''de dicto'' interpretation. On the ''de re'' interpretation, 'someone' is specific, picking out some particular individual. There is some person Peter has in mind, and Peter believes that person is out to get him. In the context of thought, the distinction helps us explain how people can hold seemingly self-contradictory beliefs.Salmani Nodoushan, M. A. (2018). "Which view of indirect reports do Persian data corroborate?" ''International Review of Pragmatics'', 10(1), 76-100. Say
Lois Lane Lois Lane is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in ''Action Comics'' #1 (June 1938). Lois is an award-winning journalist for ...
believes
Clark Kent Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publish ...
is weaker than
Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...
. Since Clark Kent is Superman, taken ''de re'', Lois's belief is untenable; the names 'Clark Kent' and 'Superman' pick out an individual in the world, and a person (or super-person) cannot be stronger than himself. Understood ''de dicto'', however, this may be a perfectly reasonable belief, since Lois is not aware that Clark and Superman are one and the same.


Context of desire

Consider the sentence "Jana wants to marry the tallest man in Fulsom County". It could be read either ''de dicto'' or ''de re''; the meanings would be different. One interpretation is that Jana wants to marry the tallest man in Fulsom County, whoever he might be. On this interpretation, what the statement tells us is that Jana has a certain unspecific desire; what she desires is for ''Jana is marrying the tallest man in Fulsom County'' to be true. The desire is directed at that situation, regardless of how it is to be achieved. The other interpretation is that Jana wants to marry a certain man, who in fact happens to be the tallest man in Fulsom County. Her desire is for ''that man'', and she desires herself to marry ''him''. The first interpretation is the ''de dicto'' interpretation, because Jana's desire relates to the words "the tallest man in Fulsom County", and the second interpretation is the ''de re'' interpretation, because Jana's desire relates to the man those words refer to. Another way to understand the distinction is to ask what Jana would want if a nine-foot-tall immigrant moved to Fulsom county. If she continued to want to marry the same man – and perceived this as representing no change in her desires – then she could be taken to have meant the original statement in a ''de re'' sense. If she no longer wanted to marry that man but instead wanted to marry the new tallest man in Fulsom County, and saw this as a continuation of her earlier desire, then she meant the original statement in a ''de dicto'' sense.


Context of modality

The number of discovered
chemical element A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their nuclei, including the pure substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements cannot be broken down into simpler sub ...
s is 118. Take the sentence "The number of chemical elements is necessarily greater than 100". Again, there are two interpretations as per the ''de dicto''/''de re'' distinction. * The ''de dicto'' interpretation \Box \exists (N_>100) says that, in other accessible possible worlds, even if the inner workings of the atom could differ (so that N_ have different values), the number of elements still could not be 100 or fewer. * The ''de re'' interpretation ''\exists\Box (N_>100)'' says that, the inner workings of the atom are what they are (N_=118 in all accessible possible worlds), and the number 118 is greater than 100. Another example: "The
President of the USA The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
in 2001 could not have been
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
". * The ''de dicto'' reading \Box \exists (Pres_\neq Al) says that, in other accessible possible worlds, even if the result of the 2001 election could differ, the President of the USA in 2001 still could not have been Al Gore. This claim seems false; Presumably, in some other accessible possible worlds where the
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
did not
rule Rule or ruling may refer to: Education * Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a university in Cambodia Human activity * The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power * Business rule, a rule perta ...
that Bush had won the
election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
, Al Gore could have been the President of the USA in 2001 in that possible world. * The ''de re'' reading \exists\Box (Pres_\neq Al) says that, the President of the USA in 2001 is who he is, and that is George Bush in all accessible possible worlds, and George Bush could not have been Al Gore.


Representing ''de dicto'' and ''de re'' in modal logic

In
modal logic Modal logic is a collection of formal systems developed to represent statements about necessity and possibility. It plays a major role in philosophy of language, epistemology, metaphysics, and natural language semantics. Modal logics extend other ...
the distinction between ''de dicto'' and ''de re'' is one of
scope Scope or scopes may refer to: People with the surname * Jamie Scope (born 1986), English footballer * John T. Scopes (1900–1970), central figure in the Scopes Trial regarding the teaching of evolution Arts, media, and entertainment * Cinem ...
. In ''de dicto'' claims, any existential quantifiers are within the scope of the modal operator, whereas in ''de re'' claims the modal operator falls within the scope of the existential quantifier. For example: Generally speaking, \Box \forall Ax is
logically equivalent Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...
to \forall \Box Ax, both meaning that all ''x'' in all the possible worlds are ''A'' (assuming that the
range of quantification In logic, a quantifier is an operator that specifies how many individuals in the domain of discourse satisfy an open formula. For instance, the universal quantifier \forall in the first order formula \forall x P(x) expresses that everythin ...
/
domain of discourse In the formal sciences, the domain of discourse, also called the universe of discourse, universal set, or simply universe, is the set of entities over which certain variables of interest in some formal treatment may range. Overview The domain ...
is the same in all the accessible possible worlds); However, \Box \exists Ax means that each accessible possible world has its own ''x'' that is ''A'', but they are not necessarily the same, whereas \exists \Box Ax means that there is a special ''x'' that is ''A'' in all accessible possible worlds. Similarly, \Diamond \exists Ax is logically equivalent to \exists \Diamond Ax, both meaning that in some accessible possible world, there is some ''x'' that is ''A''; However, \Diamond \forall Ax means that in some accessible possible world, all ''x'' are ''A'', whereas \forall \Diamond Ax means that for each ''x'' in the
range of quantification In logic, a quantifier is an operator that specifies how many individuals in the domain of discourse satisfy an open formula. For instance, the universal quantifier \forall in the first order formula \forall x P(x) expresses that everythin ...
/
domain of discourse In the formal sciences, the domain of discourse, also called the universe of discourse, universal set, or simply universe, is the set of entities over which certain variables of interest in some formal treatment may range. Overview The domain ...
, there is some accessible possible world where ''x'' is ''A'', but it can be true that no world has two ''x'' that are both ''A''.


See also

*
Barcan formula In quantified modal logic, the Barcan formula and the converse Barcan formula (more accurately, schemata rather than formulas) (i) syntactically state principles of interchange between quantifiers and modalities; (ii) semantically state a relation ...
* ''
De se is Latin for "of oneself" and, in philosophy, it is a phrase used to delineate what some consider a category of ascription distinct from " ''de dicto'' and ''de re''". Such ascriptions are found with propositional attitudes, mental states held by ...
'' *
Latitudinarianism (philosophy) Latitudinarianism, in at least one area of contemporary philosophy, is a position concerning ''de dicto'' and ''de re'' (propositional) attitudes. Latitudinarians think that ''de re'' attitudes are not a category distinct from ''de dicto'' at ...
*
Quantifier raising In generative grammar, the technical term operator denotes a type of expression that enters into an a-bar movement dependency.Chomsky, Noam. (1981) Lectures on Government and Binding, Foris, Dordrecht.Haegeman, Liliane (1994) Introduction to Govern ...
*
Temperature paradox The Temperature Paradox or Partee's Paradox is a classic puzzle in formal semantics and philosophical logic. Formulated by Barbara Partee in the 1970s, it consists of the following argument, which speakers of English judge as wildly invalid. # Th ...
*
Modal scope fallacy A fallacy of necessity is a fallacy in the logic of a syllogism whereby a degree of unwarranted necessity is placed in the conclusion. Example :a) ''Bachelors are necessarily unmarried.'' :b) ''John is a bachelor.'' :Therefore, c) ''John cannot ...


References


Bibliography

*Burge, Tyler. 1977. Belief de re. ''Journal of Philosophy'' 74, 338-362. *Donnellan, Keith S. 1966. Reference and definite descriptions. ''Philosophical Review'' 75, 281-304. *Frege, Gottlob. 1892. Über Sinn und Bedeutung. Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik 100, 25-50. Translated as On sense and reference by Peter Geach & Max Black, 1970, in Translations from the philosophical writings of Gottlob Frege. Oxford, Blackwell, 56-78. *Kaplan, David. 1978. Dthat. In Peter Cole, ed., ''Syntax and Semantics'', vol. 9: Pragmatics. New York: Academic Press, 221-243 *Kripke, Saul. 1977. Speaker's reference and semantic reference. In Peter A. French, Theodore E. Uehling, Jr., and Howard K. Wettstein, eds., Midwest Studies in Philosophy vol. II: Studies in the philosophy of language. Morris, MN: University of Minnesota, 255-276. *Larson, Richard & Gabriel Segal. 1995. Definite descriptions. In Knowledge of meaning: An introduction to semantic theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 319-359. *Ludlow, Peter & Stephen Neale. 1991. Indefinite descriptions: In defense of Russell. ''Linguistics and Philosophy'' 14, 171-202. *Ostertag, Gary. 1998. Introduction. In Gary Ostertag, ed., Definite descriptions: a reader. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1-34. *Russell, Bertrand. 1905. On denoting. ''Mind'' 14, 479-493. *Wettstein, Howard. 1981. Demonstrative reference and definite descriptions. ''Philosophical Studies'' 40, 241-257. *Wilson, George M. 1991. Reference and pronominal descriptions. ''Journal of Philosophy'' 88, 359-387.


External links


The ''De Re/De Dicto'' Distinction
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy {{Formal semantics Latin logical phrases Concepts in the philosophy of language Dichotomies Semantics Formal semantics (natural language)