Two-dimensionalism

Imagine that your teacher has a bunch of pictures of animals on her desk. She asks you to look at the picture of a cat and tell her what it is. You say it's a cat because you recognize its shape and fur pattern. But what if the cat is a robot cat - would it still be a cat? Two-dimensionalism is like figuring out the answer to that question.

When we talk about something, like a cat, there are two ways of thinking about it: what it is like and what it is. These are called "sense" and "reference." So the sense of the word "cat" is what it's like or what you think of when you think of a cat (the shape, meowing, fur, etc.). The reference of the word "cat" is the actual cat itself or the thing in the world that the word is referring to.

Two-dimensionalism says that words have both a sense and a reference that make up their meaning. So, let's say that we imagine a robot cat, which is a cat-like machine that doesn't have any fur or meow. Even though the robot cat is different from a regular cat, it still has the same sense as a cat - it looks like a cat. However, the reference of the word "cat" would be different because it doesn't refer to a living animal with fur and meows.

In other words, two-dimensionalism tries to explain how words can have different meanings based on different contexts. It's like saying "I love you" to your mom vs. your best friend - the words are the same, but the meaning is different because of the different relationships you have with them.

So, when you hear the word "cat," think about both what a cat is like and what a cat is so that you can understand its meaning in different situations.