direction of fit a metaphor that derives from a story in Anscombe’s Intention (1957) about a detective who follows a shopper around town making a list of the things that the shopper buys. As Anscombe notes, whereas the detective’s list has to match the way the world is (each of the things the shopper buys must be on the detective’s list), the shopper’s list is such that the world has to fit with it (each of the things on the list are things that he must buy). The metaphor is now standardly used to describe the difference between kinds of speech act (assertions versus commands) and mental states (beliefs versus desires). For example, beliefs are said to have the world-to-mind direction of fit because it is in the nature of beliefs that their contents are supposed to match the world: false beliefs are to be abandoned. Desires are said to have the opposite mind-to-world direction of fit because it is in the nature of desires that the world is supposed to match their contents. This is so at least to the extent that the role of an unsatisfied desire that the world be a certain way is to prompt behavior aimed at making the world that way. See also ANSCOMBE , BELIEF, MOTIVATIO. M.Sm.