Persons of the Dialogue #

Jeff
Patrick
Kevin
Peter
Davis

Scene #

The Millenium Line Skytrain, Summer 2021.

Patrick. So, what should we eat for dinner?

Jeff. We? Who is we?

Patrick. What do you mean, “who is we”?

Jeff. Do you have a good definition of “we”? I don’t think you should use that term if you don’t know what it means.

Patrick. … Can you elaborate? I’m pretty sure I know what “we” means. And I’m pretty sure “WE” used the term without any problems before.

Jeff. I’m asking, because it sounds like you included me in the group of people that is going to go eat dinner, but you didn’t ask me. So I’m just wondering if “we” includes everyone here or just Kevin, the person you were looking at when you spoke, or if you made the assumption of including me.

Patrick. Ok. What I meant was everyone here in our friend group on the train. I “made the assumption” you were part of it. Are you coming with us?

Jeff. Yeah.

(Unsynchronized facepalms fly across the group.)

Peter. So… uhhh… why did you have to ask that?

Jeff. Oh. Well, it’s because he didn’t ask the correct question. I just wanted Patrick to admit that he didn’t know what “we” meant.

Patrick. What do you mean? I do know what it means. I just – ok. You want me to give a single, formal definition of the word “we”? I can’t. It’s context dependent.

Kevin. Ok, how about this: suppose the universal set $U$ be all people on this train car, or the people that can hear Patrick’s original question, even if they’re not in our group. Let the set $A$ be the members of our group. In this case, $A=\{\text{Jeff, Patrick, Kevin, Peter, Davis} \}$. You, Patrick, proposed an action, let’s call it $d$ for ‘seeking dinner’. You then posited the existence of a set, “we”, which we can denote as $W$, such that you wanted to ask every element $x\in W$ if they wanted to perform $d$. And then you assumed $A = W$, which is why Jeff corrected you.

Patrick. (slowly lowers his face into his hand)

Jeff. He actually didn’t ask. He assumed everyone in $W$ wanted to get dinner. Because he asked what we were getting for dinner, not if we were getting dinner. So he’s also wrong about that.

(Some stifled laughter starts coming from some surrounding passengers. Davis opens his phone to play Pokemon GO and takes a small step away from the group.)

Peter. How about, you just try to guess his intention when he says “we”? So “we refers to the set of all people the speaker intends to include?

Jeff. So we have to read his mind. No. I think he should have just asked “who is we?” before using it in a sentence.

Peter. Ok, fine. Who is we?

Jeff. That’s what I was asking him at the beginning.

Patrick. So, you also don’t know who is – wait. Who are? No. You also didn’t know “who is we”.

Jeff. Yes. But I didn’t assume I knew what it meant. Let me ask: Davis, do you want to go to dinner?

Davis. What? Yes.

Jeff. (Turning to Kevin) You?

Kevin. Yes.

Jeff. (Turning to Peter) You?

Peter. (sigh) Yes.

Jeff. And I will assume you (pointing to Patrick) are going since you brought up the original question. And I am also going. So now we know what “we” refers to. But do you see now how you put burden of finding out “who is we” on the people you were talking to even though you were the original person who asked the question? I think the original person should clarify who “we” is when they use it in a sentence, or it is unfair.

Patrick. ALRIGHT. Raise your hand if you’re going to dinner.

Jeff. No no no, it’s ok, I already did your job for you. We already know who “we” is.

Kevin. Is that first “we” different from the second “we”? The ones who know “who is we” and the ones that are going to dinner?

Jeff. … Actually, I see how this is annoying. Can we just decide where to eat?