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Philosophy vocabulary · Philosophy of Mind

Intentionality

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

/ɪnˌtenʃəˈnæləti/nounAdvanced term

In philosophy, intentionality means: The property of mental states of being about or directed at something, as a belief is about a fact or a desire is for an object.

In Turkish: yönelimsellik

How it is used

Brought into modern philosophy by Franz Brentano, who saw it as the mark of the mental. Central to phenomenology and to debates on whether computers can really think. It has nothing to do with intention in the everyday sense of a plan.

Example sentences

  1. Brentano held that intentionality is what separates the mental from the physical.

  2. Searle's Chinese room asks whether a program could have genuine intentionality.

Common collocations

  • the mark of the mental
  • original intentionality
  • derived intentionality
  • intentional state
  • consciousnessThe state of having experiences, of there being something it is like to see, feel or think; also the state of being awake and aware.
  • phenomenologyA philosophical method and movement that studies the structures of experience as they appear to consciousness, from the first-person point of view.
  • functionalismThe view that a mental state is defined by what it does, its causal role between inputs, other mental states and behavior, rather than by what it is made of.
  • beliefA mental state of taking something to be true, whether or not it really is true and whether or not you have good reasons for it.

More terms: Philosophy of Mind

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