Intention

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

See also: Intention
(criminal), Intentions, Intension, and Intentionality

An agent's intention in
performing an action is his or her
specific purpose in
doing so, the end or goal that is aimed at, or intended to
accomplish. Whether an action is successful or unsuccessful depends at
least on whether the intended result was brought about. Other
consequences of someone's acting are called unintentional. However,
recent research in experimental
philosophy has shown that other factors may also matter for whether or not
an action is counted as intentional. Intentional behavior can also be just
thoughtful and deliberate goal-directedness.

Contents

1 In philosophy

1.1 Intention in
Ethics

1.2 Experimental
research

2 Related
terms

3 See also

4 References

5 External
links

[edit]
In philosophy

G.E.M. Anscombe made the
topic of intentional action a major topic of analytic philosophy
with her 1957 work Intention. She argued that intentional action was
coextensive with action of which one could ask "why were you doing that?" In the
sense that Anscombe meant her question, it was "refused application" by the
answer "I was not aware that I was doing that", but not by "for no reason at
all". Therefore Anscombe held that it was possible to act intentionally for no
reason at all. She also claimed that intentional action was subject to
"knowledge without observation", and that all intentional action involved acting under a
description.

[edit]
Intention in Ethics

In deontological
ethics the intent of an act is the way in which a maxim is supposed to
be executed.[citation
needed]

[edit]
Experimental
research

In recent years, there has been a large amount of work done on the concept of
intentional action in experimental
philosophy.[1]
This work has aimed at illuminating and understanding the factors which
influence people's judgments of whether an action was done intentionally. For
instance, research has shown that unintended side effects are often considered
to be done intentionally if the side effect is considered bad and the person
acting knew the side effect would occur before acting. Yet when the side effect
is considered good, people generally don't think it was done intentionally, even
if the person knew it would occur before acting. The most well-known example
involves a chairman who implements a new business program for the sole purpose
to make money but ends up affecting the environment in the process. If he
implements his business plan and in the process he ends up helping the
environment, then people generally say he unintentionally helped the
environment; if he implements his business plan and in the process he ends up
harming the environment, then people generally say he intentionally
harmed the environment. The important point is that in both cases his only goal
was to make money.[2]
While there have been many explanations proposed for why the "side-effect
effect" occurs, researchers on this topic have not yet reached a consensus.

[edit]
Related terms

In the philosophy of mind,
intentionality is
the property of being "about" something else, or to have some subject matter,
in a certain way. Many states of mind, such as thinking about the pyramids,
are characteristically about things (in this case, the pyramids). Other
things, such as words and paintings, can also have kinds of intentionality.
Rocks and tables, in general, do not have intentional states.

[edit]
See also

Intraparietal
sulcus

Intentionality

Process
art

Mindfulness

[edit]
References

^ Adam Feltz.
(2008). The
Knobe Effect: A Brief Overview. Journal of Mind and Behavior. 28:
265-278.

^ Knobe, J.
(2003a). Intentional Action and Side Effects in Ordinary Language.
Analysis, 63, 190-193

G.E.M. Anscombe, Intention

Donald
Davidson, Essays on Actions and Events

[edit]
External links

Online
works of Immanuel Kant on Gutenberg

Look up intention in Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.

v ·
d ·
eMetaphysics

Related articles

Cosmology · Epistemology · Ontology · Teleology · Philosophy
of psychology · Philosophy of
mind · Philosophy of
self · Philosophy
of space and time ·
Axiology · Theoretical
physics · meta-

Concepts
in metaphysics

Action · Abstract
object · Being · Category of
being · Causality · Change · Choice · Concept · Cogito ergo
sum · Embodied
cognition · Entity · Essence · Existence · Experience · Form · Idea · Identity · Information · Insight · Intelligence · Intention · Matter · Memetics · Mind · Meaning · Mental
representation · Modality · Motion · Necessity · Notion · Object · Pattern · Physical
object · Perception · Principle · Properties · Qualia · Quality · Reality · Subject · Substance · Thought · Time · Truth · Type · Unity · Universal · Unobservable · Value · more
...

Metaphysical
theories

Anti-realism · Cartesian
dualism · Free
will · Liberty · Materialism · Meaning of
life · Idealism · Existentialism · Essentialism · Libertarianism · Determinism · Naturalism · Monism · Platonic
idealism · Hindu
idealism · Phenomenalism · Nihilism · Realism · Physicalism · MOQ · Relativism · Scientific
realism · Solipsism · Subjectivism · Substance
theory · Type
theory

Metaphysicians

Parmenides · Plato · Aristotle · Plotinus · Duns
Scotus · Thomas
Aquinas · René
Descartes · John
Locke · David
Hume · Immanuel
Kant · Isaac
Newton · Arthur
Schopenhauer · Baruch
Spinoza · Georg
W. F. Hegel · George
Berkeley · Gottfried
Leibniz · Henri
Bergson · Friedrich
Nietzsche · Charles
Sanders Peirce · Ludwig
Wittgenstein · Martin
Heidegger · Alfred N.
Whitehead · Bertrand
Russell · Dorothy
Emmet · G. E.
Moore · Jean-Paul
Sartre · Gilbert
Ryle · Hilary
Putnam · P. F.
Strawson · R. G.
Collingwood · Adolph
Stöhr · Rudolf
Carnap · Saul
Kripke · Willard V. O.
Quine · Donald
Davidson · more
...

Portal ·
Category ·
Task
Force · Stubs ·
Discussion

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intention"

Categories: Thought | Intention |
Concepts in
metaphysics

Hidden categories: All
articles with unsourced statements | Articles
with unsourced statements from September 2010

Personal tools

Quran-is-haqeeqat

My
talk

My
preferences

My watchlist

My
contributions

Log
out

Namespaces

Article

Discussion

Variants

Views

Read

Edit

View
history

Watch

Actions

Search

Navigation

Main page

Contents

Featured
content

Current
events

Random article

Donate
to Wikipedia

Interaction

Help

About Wikipedia

Community
portal

Recent
changes

Contact
Wikipedia

Toolbox

What links
here

Related
changes

Upload file

Special
pages

Permanent
link

Cite
this page

Print/export

Create a book

Download as PDF

Printable
version

Languages

Česky

Deutsch

Français

한국어

Nederlands

नेपाल
भाषा

日本語

Polski

Русский

Sicilianu

Svenska

中文

This page was last modified on 18 February 2011 at
20:09.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for
details.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a
non-profit organization.

Contact
us

Privacy
policy

About Wikipedia

Disclaimers