Two dimensionalism

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Two dimensionalism is an explanatory approach in analytic philosophy. The term 'Two-dimensionalism' was first used by Robert Stalnaker. The characteristic feature of the two-dimensionalist approach is its appeal to two separately contributing accounts of a philosophical problem. On two-dimensional approaches, each contributing account is a dimension of the complete explanation. For example, in the philosophy of language, two-dimensional accounts often include a description-based dimension and a reference-based dimension. This can be illustrated with the assertion (from the Twin Earth thought-experiment)

  1. Water is H2O.

According to a straightforward two-dimensionalist account, 1 has two meanings. Along one semantic dimension, "water" is interpreted in terms of a description, such as "transparent liquid found in lakes and rivers". This might have been otherwise, for example on some other planet just like ours in every way except the chemical make-up of the transparent liquid found in lakes and rivers. Along the other semantic dimension, H2O is the reference of water (water is a rigid designator -- see also metaphysics of possible worlds), so water could not have been anything but H2O.

In addition to the philosophy of language, two-dimensional approaches have been used in modal logic, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and ethics.

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