Intentionality is what? The evolution of the concept and meaning

More ancient philosophers were interested in questions about what motivates people in the performance of certain actions. Why does one person direct his attention and feelings to an object, and the other to the very opposite. At that time it was believed that this was simply a spontaneous subjective preference for the individual, caused by the device of his psyche.

Later, several versions appeared, which became the basis of such a concept as intentionality. This is translated from Latin (intentio) means aspiration, or direction. This phenomenon of human consciousness is studied by psychologists, philosophers and linguists in our day.

The notion of meaning

Intentionality in philosophy is the constant aspiration of consciousness to the world and the objects that fill it, in order to realize them and give them meaning. In times of medieval scholasticism, for example, there was a distinction between a real object and an imaginary one.

Intentionality of consciousness is a psychic phenomenon that allows a person to find the relationship between various aspects of the world, both existing and imaginary, creating a wide variety of perception of reality. Each subject has its own set of assessments for the surrounding objects and phenomena, but there are features common to all people - feelings, imagination, perception and analytics.

The difference in each individual of feelings with respect to the same object, nevertheless has similarities - this is his study, and not an experience about him. The feeling of pain, for example, is real and makes sense for the person who experiences it. It, as an object of knowledge, does not contain sense and does not cause emotions.

For idealist philosophers, intentionality is the property of human consciousness to create one's own world, filled with objects and phenomena, to which it gives meaning and meaning. At the same time, there is no difference between a real and a fictitious reality.

In analytic philosophy and phenomenology, the theory of intentionality is one of the basic concepts. Thanks to it, special relationships are established between consciousness, language and the surrounding world. The observation of an object is associated with its linguistic designation and place in reality, and sometimes it does not. Concentrated study of the subject, accompanied by the ability to logically determine its properties and connections with the world, can also be just an act of contemplation.

Dominique Perler

This famous modern philosopher from Switzerland was born on March 17, 1965. Being a professor and teacher of theoretical philosophy at the University of Berlin, he became known throughout the world as a writer Dominique Perler. "Theories of intentionality in the Middle Ages" - his fundamental work on the development of philosophy from 1250 to 1330.

After studying the works of such philosophers of the time as Thomas Aquinas, Peter John Olivi, Duns Scotus, Peter Avreol and Ockham, Perler formulated five types of intentionality:

• The type of formal identity was voiced by Thomas Aquinas, who believed that intentionality is a way of expressing with the help of the intellect, which gives the formulation to an object only by comparing it with similar objects or properties common to them. For example, the concept of "living entity" means a breathing, moving and acting subject, under the category of which falls both man and animal.

• The type of active focusing of cognitive abilities was offered by Peter John Olivi, a Franciscan monk, who lived in 1248-1298. He believed that in the process of cognizing the object, that does not affect the subject studying it. That is, only the focus on the study of an object or phenomenon is able to expand the person's knowledge of it.
• The type of intentional object of Duns Scotus, the first developer of the concept of intention, was associated with the focus of consciousness on the studied object or its cognition. In this case, the being of a particular thing received features inherent only to it and was defined as "this."
• The type of the intentional presence of Peter Avreola denotes an act, as the intention to perform an action. For example, sin is the intention of the soul.
• The type of Occam's natural sign implies that things have a meaning simply because they exist.

Thus, Perler ("Theories of intentionality in the Middle Ages") divided this concept into 5 models, each of which has its own view of the perception of the picture of the world and of the things and phenomena that it includes. It is the philosophical thoughts of the ancient sages that formed the basis for the discussions of modern scholars.

Franz Brentano

The advanced theories of intentionality in the Middle Ages became the object of study of subsequent generations of scientists. So, Franz Brentano, an Austrian psychologist and philosopher (born in 1838, died in 1917), being a Catholic priest, left the church in 1872 for the title of professor of philosophy. Soon he was excommunicated for his world views, and in 1880 deprived of his scientific title.

The basis of Brentano's philosophy is a clear separation of physical and mental phenomena. He believed that in the first case, intentionality is not in reality, whereas in the second case it is a consciousness that is always objective. It has to do with things, regardless of whether they are real or not. From his conception further developed such a direction in science as phenomenology.

Proceeding from his conclusions, Brentano developed the theory of truth. So, he believed that the comprehension of the object by consciousness occurs on three levels:

• Perception, both external, through the senses, and internal, at the emotional level.
• Memorization is a subjective knowledge of the properties of an object.
• Axiom is the common knowledge about the object.

Having come to this conclusion, Brentano expressed the idea that for the subject the truth is his inner perception of the object, while the external is the opinion of many that can be questioned. Edmund Husserl continued and developed his doctrine of intentionality . He attended Brentano's lectures in Vienna between 1884 and 1886.

Intentional perception

Once Brentano "lent" the idea of the orientation of thinking on objects from Aristotle and medieval scholastics, which later wrote Perler ("Theories of intentionality"). He believed that this is a subjective attitude to the subjects, regardless of whether they exist in reality or not. So, he wrote that there is no faith without an object in which one believes, hopes without what they hope for, joy without a cause, causing it.

Taking the notion of "intentionality" from Brentano, Husserl gave him another meaning: for him, this term means not the relation to the object, but the orientation of consciousness (thinking) on it.

Phenomenology is the science of objects and phenomena studied by experience. Husserl, its founder, believed that a complete view of the object could be created only by a detailed, comprehensive and repeated study of it. It was he who developed the notion that intentionality in philosophy, this relationship between consciousness and perception.

In his opinion, intention has functions that organize that part of consciousness that is responsible for collecting data about an object through perception and integrating them into a single whole. That is, the subject of study did not exist, until an act of contemplation took place.

Eidetic connections

Husserl believed that the heart (thinking) is the body responsible for cognition. During the experience, the heart can direct the attention of the mind to the object that causes anxiety. Intentionality of consciousness is included in this way. E. Husserl noted that only its focus and focusing cause or find this object in reality (the world of eidos). This creates an eidetic connection, as a result of which a psychological phenomenon is formed in the mind.

He also made a division between the phenomena of the mental and physical level, since not always the phenomenon of consciousness corresponded or was the necessary object in the real world. For example, young people got to a rock concert.

Some people perceive such music, others do not. That is, someone had an intention of consciousness, which set him up to perceive sounds, thereby creating an eidetic connection. The answer to the search for consciousness was coming to the concert.

The rest did not form an intention, since the mind is set to search for other music. Meanwhile, the musicians continue to play, creating the eidos of the work from the sounds it contains.

Intentional consciousness

If for medieval philosophers intentionality is the properties of the object, and for Brentano - the psychological processes inherent in the subject, Husserl related this concept to the consciousness itself.

He believed that intention is any act of thinking, always aimed at an object, this is its property. Regardless of whether the object is real for consciousness or not, any thinking process is always aimed at it and is connected with it.

For Brentano, intentionality was associated with mental acts, according to which the cognizable object assumed its immanent existence, that is, does not go beyond the boundaries of this experience (study). Unlike his teacher, Husserl does not speak about the object on which consciousness is concentrated, but about intentional acts that establish its content. The very existence of the object is secondary.

As the notion of "intentionality of consciousness" evolved, Husserl expanded his functions, turning it into a comprehensive analyst. In his philosophy, intention does not simply characterize human thinking, but is also a force through which the act of knowing the object is realized. For example, when theoretical acts of consciousness are examined, new objects of science are established.

Analyzing the intentional activity of thinking, one can observe the emergence of the intention of the experiences and their structure. At the same time, they can have a real basis, confirmed by the five senses, as well as the spiritual background. It is the spirit that forms the object and gives it meaning. Between him and the senses is the "intermediary", to whom Husserl defined the "noema".

Noema is not dependent on the object, so consciousness can take on faith the existence of an object or phenomenon, which in the real world simply can not be. It does not matter, since the processes that occur in the human brain are important. For example, a person who decides that he has a serious illness, since he has stitched in his side, can make him real if he constantly focus or expect to manifest another symptom.

Identifying Eidos

At all times philosophers were interested in the question of how to reveal the essence of things. Today this process is called the method of phenomenological reduction. It is based on a trance that opens a pure consciousness, beyond which the rest of the world is located.

This method long before Husserl enjoyed the blessed Augustine (354-430 gg.) And Rene Descartes (1596-1650 gg.). He was attracted by the fact that it is in the purity of consciousness that the meaning of eidos opens. To implement this phenomenological science offers 2 types of trance:

• The first important point is the complete exclusion of the external world and its knowledge or beliefs about the object under study. The wording, which it is customary to call this object and those properties that are "attributed" to it, are a record in the mind. Above it you must rise to overcome. With this approach, a person abandons the subject, as if he does not exist and knows his eidos. The routine should not interfere with routine, everyday, religious, scientific or mythological truth about him and any judgment is excluded. It does not matter the reality of this object.
• In the second type, not only the external world, but the "I" of the subject himself, is "withdrawn" beyond the limits of consciousness, as part of the reality in which he lives. Thus, there remains an absolutely pure consciousness, beyond which remains reality and one of its components - the soul. Thus there is a cognition of the essence of the studied object, what it is, without including a personal relationship to it.

All the knowledge that exists about the subject is the derivative of consciousness, creating an integral description with its inherent properties.

Essential structures of consciousness

The development of the problem of intentionality of consciousness is a merit of Husserl, who created a method for clarifying what the phenomena are. So, he suggested:

• To turn the mind inward, in which consciousness, directed to itself, completely renounces judgments and receives knowledge not from one's own experience or impression, but from outside.
• Use unbiased attention. This allows us not to deny that there is no world outside consciousness, which in itself is already a judgment and relieves the empirical "I".
• Include a space of pure consciousness, during which the subject gets rid of all external and accumulated experience and knowledge about the world. In this state, there are only forms that have no content.
• Abstain from the belief in the reality of the world and observe it eidos. At the same time, its essence manifests itself within the subject, as a phenomenon and something absolute.

In developing his philosophy, Husserl sought to find in the field of pure subjectivity the possibility of obtaining results with objectively valuable meanings.

What's really inside

Intentionality in linguistics means the direction of consciousness on an object. What is actually going on inside him during the processes of cognition, makes it possible to understand the philosophical concept of Husserl.

Can the term "pure consciousness" mean its absence, complete emptiness, to have the same meaning as an "empty place"? As it turned out, it never breaks away from being and can not be filled with any objects, just to fill the vacuum. Consciousness is always an image of something.

Even if you release it from external reality, it will not stop projecting it, replacing the outside world with the internal one. In fact, it can not be inside, because it is outside itself. Even if a person is immersed by trance on the very bottom of his consciousness, he will stop being and throw him out again to things.

Phenomenology as a means of seeing the world

As it turned out in the process of development of this direction in science, not only consciousness (thoughts, perceptions) possesses intentionality, but also its separate components, such as desires, emotions, intuition and others.

According to Husserl, perception is always a perception of something, for example, an object, whereas judgment is an understanding of its content. Consciousness is the foundation within which all kinds of human activity are formed and created.

Proceeding from this, consciousness, as the creator of everything around, can not be divided or violated its integrity. It can not be attempted to describe or "attribute" to it some concept. According to Husserl's concept, the phenomenon of consciousness is that it is self-sufficient and is what opens existence to people.