Intentionality and Belief de re: A Critical Study of Searle's Representative Internalism

John Rogers Searle's rejection of the notion of beliefs de re (1983) is criticized with respect to two central contentions: (1) The notion of conditions of satisfaction used by Searle to reclassify traditional beliefs de re under beliefs de dicto is ambiguous between world conditions & mental state conditions. (2) Searle's denial of representation commitments is refuted on grounds of implication by properties of representations. The ambiguity of (1) & Searle's failure to consider transference of commitments under (2) are argued to render Searle's account incoherent. 13 References. J. Hitchcock