Some reflections on Husserlian intentionality, intentionalism, and non-propositional contents

Abstract

This paper discusses Husserl’s theory of intentionality and compares it to contemporary debates about intentionalism. I first show to what extent such a comparison could be meaningful. I then outline the structure of intentionality as found in Ideas I. My main claims are that – in contrast with intentionalism – intentionality for Husserl (i) covers just a region of conscious contents; that it is (ii) essentially a relation between act-processes and presented content; and that (iii) the side of act-processes contains non-representational contents. In the third part, I show that Husserl also (iv) offers resources against intentionalism’s exclusive concern with propositional content.

How to dig up minds: The intentional analysis program in cognitive archaeology

“…So-called intentionalism is then identical with representationalism (e.g., Dretske, 1995;Harman, 1990;Lycan, 2001Lycan, , 2015Shoemaker, 1998Shoemaker, , 2000Tye, 1995Tye, , 2002Van Mazijk, 2017), which is one of the most widely adopted standpoints in contemporary philosophy of mind.…”

“…Extending minds beyond the folds of skulls and out into the world is an increasingly popular strategy in exploring problems concerning mind and cognition. In recent philosophy of mind, extended mind theory (Clark & Chalmers, 1998) and enactivism (Hutto & Myin, 2013, 2017 represent perhaps the most popular of such attempts.…”

“…The concept of intentional content has a much wider application than that of intentions in the everyday sense; it is generally taken as synonymous with representational content (Byrne, 2001, 2009; Crane, 1998, 2003, 2009; Marcus, 2006; Stoljar, 2007). So‐called intentionalism is then identical with representationalism (e.g., Dretske, 1995; Harman, 1990; Lycan, 2001, 2015; Shoemaker, 1998, 2000; Tye, 1995, 2002; Van Mazijk, 2017), which is one of the most widely adopted standpoints in contemporary philosophy of mind.…”

Reconciling the Noema Debate

“…Let alone the vast number of research articles on the topic, many book-length studies have been dedicated to the study of just this concept in Husserl's phenomenology (see Daniel 1992 for an extensive bibliography up until the early 1990's; more recently, see Zahavi 2017, pp. 82-108;Mazijk 2017;Moran 2015;Drummond 2015;Smith 2013, pp. 245-299;2019;Beyer 2017).…”