Fractal Semantics, Dasein and Frege’s Puzzles about Propositional Attitudes

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

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1 Tabriz university-Iran

2 Associate Professor of Philosophy Department, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.

Abstract

Why does meaning exhibit both remarkable stability across time and irreducible variability across subjects, contexts, and cultural epochs? Existing theories — whether referentialist or sense-based — cannot fully answer this question because they model meaning as a static, level-independent object. This paper develops structural-fractal semantics, a formal framework that models linguistic meaning as a level-indexed, subject-relative, and time-sensitive hierarchical structure: unbounded in principle, yet always operative at a finite "cut" in practice. The framework distinguishes four components: (i) an anchoring base that stably fixes reference across levels; (ii) essential data that preserve semantic identity; (iii) singular data whose acceptance or rejection drives cognitive significance and conceptual change; and (iv) neutral data that leave semantic identity unchanged. This tripartite data-role structure is grounded in Heidegger's notion of Dasein as Being-in-the-world, which explains why meaning is simultaneously open-ended and practically finite. On this basis, the framework offers systematic, formally precise treatments of five classical problems: the informativeness of identity statements (Frege's puzzle), the opacity of propositional attitude reports, the externalism of natural kind terms, the normativity of rule-following (Kripke–Wittgenstein), and layered conceptual relativism with bounded incommensurability.

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Journal of Philosophical Investigations

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 15 June 2026

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