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date: 09 December 2019

Abstract and Keywords

Intentional systems theory is in the first place an analysis of the meanings of such everyday ‘mentalistic’ terms as ‘believe’, ‘desire’, ‘expect’, ‘decide’, and ‘intend’: the terms of ‘folk psychology’ that we use to interpret, explain, and predict the behaviour of other human beings, animals, some artefacts such as robots and computers, and indeed ourselves. In traditional parlance we seem to be attributing minds to the things we thus interpret, and this raises a host of questions about the conditions under which a thing can be truly said to have a mind, or to have beliefs, desires, and other ‘mental’ states. According to intentional systems theory, these questions can best be answered by analysing the logical presuppositions and methods of our attribution practices, when we adopt the intentional stance toward something.

Keywords: intentional systems theory, folk psychology, mentalistic terms, human behaviour, mental states, intentional stance

Daniel Dennett

Daniel C. Dennett is university professor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. He is also the co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies there. His most recent book on free will is Freedom Evolves (2003) and among his recent articles are “Toward a Science of Volition,” with W. Prinz and N. Sebanz, in Disorders of Volition, edited by N. Sebanz and W. Prinz (2006), and “Some Observations on the Psychology of Thinking about Free Will,” in Are We Free? Psychology and Free Will, edited by John Baer, James C. Kaufman, Roy F. Baumeister (OUP, 2008).

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