Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
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From: g4bomber@cdf.toronto.edu (Jeremy Bailin)
Subject: Intentionality
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Organization: University of Toronto, Computing Disciplines Facility
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 14:35:20 GMT
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Idea: Intentionality is not an all-or-none phenomenon, but lies on a continuum.

Why?

The example that comes to mind is Putnam's Twin Earth... if I were suddenly
switched to Twin Earth, where everything is identical except that what we
call water on Earth, while still clear, drinkable, bathable in etc has a
completely different chemical composition. Then, my belief that "This is
water" is equally applicable both to real water and to "water" on Twin Earth.
However, our intentional states are so well-developped (a product of good
sensory apparatus and good rationality) that it takes an extreme effort to
trick us to use the same internal state for a different stimulus.

Contrast this with a thermostat. The thermostat has 2 internal states: it's
not hot enough in the room or it's hot enough in the room. But are these what
the states actually are? No - we could quite easily fool the thermostat into
using these two states to represent wildly different stimuli and thus
regulate virtually anything. So while its internal states are indeed about
something, that something is extremely vague.

The point is, although we are on the opposite end of the spectrum from
the thermostat, we can still be tricked as the thermostat is. Our intentional
states, then, are not entirely intentional as they are not always about the
same thing, although it is very difficult to make them about something else.



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