We use the words “meaning”,
“believing”, “intending” in such a
way that they refer to certain acts, states of mind given certain
circumstances; as by the expression “checkmating
somebody” we refer to the act of taking his king.
If on the other hand someone, say a child, playing about with chessmen,
placed a few of them on a chess board and went through the motions of
taking a king, we should not say the child had checkmated
anyone. ‒ ‒
And here too one might think that what distinguished this
110.
case from real checkmating was
what happened in the child's mind.