Philosophy Now Forum

Hello,

it seems to me that reflected images, such as a landscape reflected upon a lake, possess intentionality. The reflection of the landscape points to the landscape, it is about the landscape.

I have tried and failed to find an established position as to whether this is the case or not.

What do people think? Do reflected images possess intentionality?

Thanks, Greg

gregoryhoward89 wrote:
What do people think? Do reflected images possess intentionality?

What on earth are you talking about?

gregoryhoward89 wrote:Hello,

it seems to me that reflected images, such as a landscape reflected upon a lake, possess intentionality. The reflection of the landscape points to the landscape, it is about the landscape.

I have tried and failed to find an established position as to whether this is the case or not.

What do people think? Do reflected images possess intentionality?

What you ask is irrelevant, what you really need is a shrink and tell him ur skitzo.

intentionality requires an artist...

-Imp

gregoryhoward89 wrote:Hello,

it seems to me that reflected images, such as a landscape reflected upon a lake, possess intentionality. The reflection of the landscape points to the landscape, it is about the landscape.

I have tried and failed to find an established position as to whether this is the case or not.

What do people think? Do reflected images possess intentionality?

Thanks, Greg

intentionality
Philosophy Dictionary Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind
The property of the mind by which it is directed at, about, or 'of' objects and events in the world. Aboutness - in the manner of beliefs, fears, desires, etc.
&ltDiscussion&gt &ltReferences&gt Chris Eliasmith

intentionality
The characteristic feature of cognitive states—that they invariably represent or are about something beyond themselves. The intentions of a moral agent are, therefore, the states of mind that accompany its actions.

Recommended Reading: Daniel C. Dennett, The Intentional Stance (MIT, 1989); William Lyons, Approaches to Intentionality (Oxford, 1998); John R. Searle, Intentionality (Cambridge, 1983); Robert C. Stalnaker, Context and Content: Essays on Intentionality in Speech and Thought (Oxford, 1999); Hubert L. Dreyfus, Husserl, Intentionality and Cognitive Science (Bradford, 1990); Edward N. Zalta, Intentional Logic and the Metaphysics of Intentionality (MIT, 1988); and Michael Bratman, Faces of Intention: Selected Essays on Intention and Agency (Cambridge, 1999).

Also see SEP on intentionality, intentions, and intentionality in ancient philosophy, and intentionality and consciousness, DPM, John Perry, Pär Sundström, and David L. Thompson.
No, because a reflected image does not possess a mind.

tbieter wrote:

gregoryhoward89 wrote:Hello,

it seems to me that reflected images, such as a landscape reflected upon a lake, possess intentionality. The reflection of the landscape points to the landscape, it is about the landscape.

I have tried and failed to find an established position as to whether this is the case or not.

What do people think? Do reflected images possess intentionality?

Thanks, Greg

intentionality
Philosophy Dictionary Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind
The property of the mind by which it is directed at, about, or 'of' objects and events in the world. Aboutness - in the manner of beliefs, fears, desires, etc.
&ltDiscussion&gt &ltReferences&gt Chris Eliasmith

intentionality
The characteristic feature of cognitive states—that they invariably represent or are about something beyond themselves. The intentions of a moral agent are, therefore, the states of mind that accompany its actions.

Recommended Reading: Daniel C. Dennett, The Intentional Stance (MIT, 1989); William Lyons, Approaches to Intentionality (Oxford, 1998); John R. Searle, Intentionality (Cambridge, 1983); Robert C. Stalnaker, Context and Content: Essays on Intentionality in Speech and Thought (Oxford, 1999); Hubert L. Dreyfus, Husserl, Intentionality and Cognitive Science (Bradford, 1990); Edward N. Zalta, Intentional Logic and the Metaphysics of Intentionality (MIT, 1988); and Michael Bratman, Faces of Intention: Selected Essays on Intention and Agency (Cambridge, 1999).

Also see SEP on intentionality, intentions, and intentionality in ancient philosophy, and intentionality and consciousness, DPM, John Perry, Pär Sundström, and David L. Thompson.
No, because a reflected image does not possess a mind.

What kind of being is a reflect image?

gregoryhoward89 wrote:Hello,

it seems to me that reflected images, such as a landscape reflected upon a lake, possess intentionality. The reflection of the landscape points to the landscape, it is about the landscape.

I have tried and failed to find an established position as to whether this is the case or not.

What do people think? Do reflected images possess intentionality?

Thanks, Greg

No. I suppose I should elucidate.

Brentano, who coined the term, thought intentionality was a property which only mental phenomena (as opposed to physical phenomena) exhibit. According to his phenomenological categories, a reflection on the water would be a physical phenomenon.

"Every idea or presentation which we acquire either through sense perception or imagination is an example of a mental phenomenon.1 By presentation I do not mean that which is presented, but rather the act of presentation. Thus, hearing a sound, seeing a colored object, feeling warmth or cold, as well as similar states of imagination are examples of what I mean by this term. I also mean by it the thinking of a general concept, provided such a thing actually does occur. Furthermore, every judgement, every recollection, every expectation, every inference, every conviction or opinion, every doubt, is a mental phenomenon. Also to be included under this term is every emotion: joy, sorrow, fear, hope, courage, despair, anger, love, hate, desire, act of will, intention, astonishment, admiration, contempt, etc.
Examples of physical phenomena, on the other hand, are a color, a figure, a landscape which I see, a chord which I hear, warmth, cold, odor which I sense; as well as similar images which appear in the imagination."
-Franz Brentano, "Psychology From an Empirical Standpoint", p. 60, 61.

Here's the paragraph where he defines intentionality:

"Every mental phenomenon is characterized by what the Scholastics of the Middle Ages called the intentional (or mental)† inexistence of an object, and what we might call, though not wholly unambiguously, reference to a content, direction toward an object (which is not to be understood here as meaning a thing), or immanent objectivity. Every mental phenomenon includes something as object within itself, although they do not all do so in the same way. In presentation something is presented, in judgement something is affirmed or denied, in love loved, in hate hated, in desire desired and so on.
This intentional in-existence is characteristic exclusively of mental phenomena. No physical phenomenon exhibits anything like it. We can, therefore, define mental phenomena by saying that they are those phenomena which contain an object intentionally within themselves."
-Ibid. p. 68.

Hello guys,
I am new here.
I am sorry to open up this idea because I think it is a different one to impart. I am currently thinking about what Husserl meant by his "Intentionality" which he himself inherited from his teacher Franz Brentano. Can somebody help me for this? or wise guess perhaps.