Even the philosophers of antiquity were interested in questions about what exactly drives people when committing certain acts. Why does one person direct his attention and feelings to any object, and the other to the completely opposite. In those days, it was believed that this was just a spontaneous subjective preference of the individual, caused by the device of his psyche.
Later, several versions appeared that 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 today.
Concept of meaning
Intentionality in philosophy is the constant aspiration of consciousness to the world and the objects that fill it, with the aim of understanding them and giving them meaning. In medieval scholastic times, for example, there was a difference between the real thing and the imaginary.
Intentionality of consciousness is a psychic phenomenon that allows a person to find a relationship between various aspects of the world, both existing and imagined, creating a wide variety of perceptions of reality. Each subject has its own set of assessments for the objects and phenomena surrounding it, but there are features common to all people - feelings, imagination, perception and analytics.
The difference in each individual's feelings in relation to the same object, however, has common features - this is his study, and not an experience about him. The sensation of pain, for example, is real and makes sense to those who experience it. She, as an object of knowledge, does not contain meaning and does not cause emotions.
For idealist philosophers, intentionality is the property of the human mind to create its own world, filled with objects and phenomena, to which it gives meaning and significance. However, there is no difference between real and imagined reality.
In analytical 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. Observation of an object is sometimes associated with its linguistic designation and place in reality, but sometimes it doesn’t. A focused 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.
Dominic Perler
This famous contemporary philosopher from Switzerland was born on March 17, 1965. As a professor and teacher of theoretical philosophy at the University of Berlin, he became known around the world as a writer Dominic Perler. "Theories of intentionality in the Middle Ages" is his fundamental work devoted to the development of philosophy from 1250 to 1330.
After studying the work of such philosophers of that time as Thomas Aquinas, Peter John Olivi, Duns Scot, Peter Avreol and Ockham, Perler formulated 5 types of intentionality:
- The type of formal identity was voiced by Thomas Aquinas, who believed that intentionality is a way of expression with the help of intellect, which gives a formulation to an object only by comparing it with similar objects or properties common to them. For example, the term “living creature” means a breathing, moving and active subject, under the category of which falls both man and animal.
- The type of active focusing of cognitive abilities was proposed by Peter John Olivi, a Franciscan monk who lived in 1248–1298. He believed that in the process of cognizing an object, that one does not affect the subject studying it. That is, only a focus on the study of an object or phenomenon can expand a person’s knowledge of it.
- The type of intentional object of Duns Scott, the first developer of the concept of intention, was associated with the orientation of consciousness to the studied subject or its cognition. At the same time, the existence of a particular thing received features inherent only to it and was defined as “this”.
- The type of intentional presence of Peter Avreola denotes an act, as an intention to perform an action. For example, sin is the intention of the soul.
- Occam's type of 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 on the perception of the picture of the world and the things and phenomena that enter into it. It was the philosophical thoughts of the ancient sages that formed the basis of the discussions of modern scientists.
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, and 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 worldview, and in 1880 he was deprived of his scientific rank.
The basis of the philosophy of Brentano is a clear separation of physical and mental phenomena. He believed that in the first case there is no intentionality in reality, while in the second it is consciousness, which is always objective. It has to do with things, whether they are real or not. From his conception, a direction in science such as phenomenology later developed.
Based on his findings, Brentano developed the theory of truth. So, he believed that the understanding of an object by consciousness occurs at three levels:
- Perception, both external, through the senses, and internal, on an emotional level.
- Remembrance - subjective knowledge of the properties of an object.
- Axiom - generally accepted knowledge about the object.
Having come to this conclusion, Brentano suggested that for the subject, the truth is his internal perception of the subject, while the external is the opinion of many that can be questioned. His doctrine of intentionality was continued and developed by Edmund Husserl. He attended Brentano's lectures in Vienna from 1884 to 1886.
Intentional Perception
Brentano once “lent” the idea of directing thought to objects at Aristotle and the medieval scholastics, about which Perler later wrote (“The Theories of Intentionality”). He believed that this is a subjective attitude to objects, regardless of whether they actually exist or not. So, he wrote that there is no faith without the object in which they believe, hopes without what they hope for, joy without a reason that causes it.
Taking from Brentano the concept of “intentionality”, Husserl endowed it with a different meaning: for him this term does not mean attitude to the object, but the orientation of consciousness (thinking) towards it.
Phenomenology is the science of objects and phenomena studied experimentally. Husserl, its founder, believed that a complete opinion of an object can only be created with a detailed, comprehensive and multiple study of it. It was he who developed the concept that intentionality in philosophy is the relationship of consciousness and perception.
In his opinion, the intention has functions that organize that part of consciousness that is responsible for collecting data about an object through perceptions and combines them into a single whole. That is, the subject of study, as it were, did not exist until an act of contemplation occurred.
Eidetic connections
Husserl believed that the heart (thinking) is the body responsible for cognition. During the period of experience, the heart can direct the attention of consciousness to the object that causes anxiety. In this way, the intentionality of consciousness is included. E. Husserl noted that only his focus and focus cause or find this object in reality (the world of eidos). In this case, an eidetic connection is created, as a result of which a psychological phenomenon is formed in the mind.
He also made a separation between phenomena of the mental and physical level, since the necessary object in the real world did not always correspond to the phenomenon of consciousness. For example, young people went to a rock concert.
Some perceive such music, others do not. That is, someone had an intention of consciousness, which tuned him to the perception of 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 consciousness is tuned in to the search for other music. In the meantime, the musicians continue to play, creating the eidos of the work from the sounds included in it.
Intentional consciousness
If for philosophers of the Middle Ages intentionality is the properties of an object, and for Brentano, psychological processes characteristic of the subject, Husserl connected this concept with consciousness itself.
He believed that intention is any act of thinking that is always directed at an object, this is its property. Regardless of whether the object is real for consciousness or not, any thought process is always directed at it and connected with it.
For Brentano, intentionality was associated with psychic acts, according to which a cognizable subject assumed its immanent existence, that is, not going beyond the boundaries of a given 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 concept of “intentionality of consciousness” developed, Husserl expanded its functions, turning it into comprehensive analytics. In his philosophy, the intention is not only characterizes human thinking, but is also a force due to which the act of cognition of the subject is carried out. For example, when theoretical acts of consciousness are investigated, new objects of science are established.
By analyzing the intentional activity of thinking, one can observe the occurrence of the intention of experiences and their structure. Moreover, 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 his senses is a “mediator, ” to whom Husserl gave the definition of “noem.”
Noem does not depend on the object, therefore, consciousness can take for granted the existence of an object or phenomenon, which in the real world simply cannot be. This does not matter, since the processes occurring in the human brain are important. For example, a person who decides that he has a serious illness, as he has pricked in his side, can make it real if he constantly focuses or expects the appearance of the next symptoms.
Eidos detection
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 up a pure consciousness, beyond which the rest of the world is located.
Long before Husserl, this method was used by Blessed Augustine (354–430) and Rene Descartes (1596–1650). He was attracted by the fact that it is in the purity of consciousness that the meaning of eidos is revealed. To implement this, phenomenological science offers 2 types of trance:
- The first important point is the complete exclusion of the outside world and its knowledge or ideas about the object being studied. The wording used to call this subject and those properties that are “attributed” to it are a record in consciousness. It is necessary to rise above it in order to overcome. With this approach, a person renounces an object as if it does not exist and its eidos cognizes. The routine, domestic, religious, scientific or mythological truth about it should not interfere with the process and any judgment is excluded. Also, the reality of this object does not matter.
- According to the second type, not only the external world, but also the “I” of the subject itself is “withdrawn” beyond consciousness, as part of the reality in which he lives. Thus, an absolutely pure consciousness remains, beyond the bounds of which there remains reality and one of its components - the soul. At the same time, the essence of the object under study is known, what it is, without the inclusion of a personal relationship to it.
All knowledge that exists about an object is a derivative of consciousness, creating a complete description with properties inherent only to it.
Essential structures of consciousness
The development of the problem of the intentionality of consciousness is the merit of Husserl, who created a method to find out what phenomena are. So, he suggested:
- To turn the mind inward, in which the consciousness turned to itself completely renounces judgments and receives knowledge not from its own experience or impression, but from the outside.
- Use unbiased attention. This allows us not to deny that the world outside of consciousness does not exist, which in itself is already a judgment and eliminates the empirical "I".
- Include the space of pure consciousness, during which the subject gets rid of all external and accumulated experience and knowledge about the world. In such a state, there are only forms that do not have content.
- Refrain from believing in the reality of the world and detachedly observe its eidos. At the same time, his 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 values.
What's really inside
Intentionality in linguistics means the orientation of consciousness to some object. What really happens inside of 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, have the same meaning as "empty space"? As it turned out, it never detaches from being and cannot be filled with any objects, just to fill the vacuum. Consciousness is always an image of something.
Even if you free it from external reality, it will not stop projecting it, replacing the outside world with the inner one. In fact, it cannot be inside, as it is outside itself. Even if a person is immersed with the help of a trance at the very bottom of his consciousness, it will cease to be him and will “throw” him out again to things.
