   Within the orthodox paradigm in the philosophy of mind and language of the 1960’s and 1970’s, there was an important swing of the pendulum away from the implications of Frege’s and especially Russell’s doctrines for intentionality. The so-called “theory of direct reference” has contributed to rehabilitate the view that concrete individuals matter more to the identity of the singular thoughts that humans entertain than the Frege/Russell doctrines allow. According to Frege’s distinction between sense and reference, what matters to the identity of a thought about a concrete individual is not the individual thought about but the abstract sense by means of which he is thought about. According to Russell, most thoughts that seem prima facie to be about concrete individuals are in fact not singular thoughts but generally quantified propositions. Much of the impetus for the theory of direct reference came from the implications of the semantics of modal logic for the intentionality of singular thoughts and beliefs.