 We can strengthen the conclusion by considering ways to dispute it. Consider all thoughts that represent the same particulars and predicate the same properties of them. Let us call these thoughts referentially equivalent. Vendler proposed that a fact is “an abstract entity which indiscriminately contains a set of referentially equivalent true propositions” (Vendler 1967: 711; my emphasis). If we drop the restriction to true propositions and simplify Vendler’s idea, we can propose that a state of affairs is a set of referentially equivalent thoughts, whether they are true or not. The state of affairs Hesperus’s shining is the set of all thoughts that are about Hesperus and predicate the property of shining to it.