Talk:De dicto and de re

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Suppose someone asks, "What's the Dow Jones Industrial Average?" I could answer this in two ways:

  1. "It's one of several stock market indices created by Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company founder Charles Dow."
  2. "It's 11,079.46."

Is this an example of a de dicto/de re distinction? Seahen 01:50, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Matt Pearce: Anyone care to comment on the fact that 'the number of planets' is now 'eight'. There I was thinking that 'nine' was the necessary truth. I bet there a more than a few essentialists writing redrafts of their tracts at the moment.

Matt: The statement asserting that there are a certain number planets is a de dicto statement. At a time, "Pluto is a planet" was true by definition. So, when Plato was defined as a planet by cosmological experts, Pluto added to the total count. Now, the name Plato cannot be described as a planet. The substitution failure should be an indication of de dicto knowledge. If we were shooting for de re knowledge, we would look in a telescope, find Pluto, call it Pluto (designate it rigidly), and say that Pluto exists. Kanodin 02:33, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Poor example in Context of Thought

Using an example about "everyone" instead of "someone" really works against providing a clear distinction. I'm going to change this if I don't hear any objections over the next few days. 12.4.221.203 16:05, 6 August 2007 (UTC)MattGif

I've rewritten the the Context of Thought section. I think it's a bit clearer what the distinction is, and why is it important specifically to thought. MattGif 19:20, 8 August 2007 (UTC)MattGif