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>From: onstott@a.cs.okstate.edu (ONSTOTT CHARLES OR)
Subject: Projected Intentionality
Message-ID: <1992Feb6.032659.11087@a.cs.okstate.edu>
Organization: Oklahoma State University, Computer Science, Stillwater
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 03:26:59 GMT

Someone wrote(I lost the header, sorry.):
> ii. Arrangements of matter by an intentional entity for the purpose of
> control or prediction (thermostats, calculators).  The representation
> is in the "heads" of the intentional entity, and the entity merely
> arranged the matter so as to "match" the requirements of the
> representation.
  
  I am glad to see that someone else has thought of this.  I have 
termed this sort of thing, elsewhere, "projected intentionality" where
an intentional agent projects "intentionality" into an inanimate
object.  I think this is indicitive of the anthropomorphic nature of
a lot of epistemological approaches.  Particularly those who try to
determine animal intelligence and animal language capability; all
the while having stated that humans are the only things capable
of language and intelligence.  These definitions usually mean "something
that looks like human behavior and is different than animal behavior; so
much so that it might not be behavior but something else more mysterious
."  Anyway, along the same line an individual who wants to claim that
a thermostat has beliefs is falling into the problem of
projected intentionality.  

BCnya,
   Charles O. Onstott, III
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Charles O. Onstott, III                  P.O. Box 2386
Undergraduate in Philosophy              Stillwater, Ok  74076
Oklahoma State University                onstott@a.cs.okstate.edu


"The most abstract system of philosophy is, in its method and purpose, 
nothing more than an extremely ingenious combination of natural sounds."
                                              -- Carl G. Jung
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