English

Noun

intendment

1. the sense in which the legal system interprets something, especially the intention of legislation

An agent's intention in performing an action is their specific purpose in doing so, the end or goal they aim at, or intend 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. Intentional behavior can also be just thoughtful and deliberate goal-directedness.

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 you could ask "why were you doing that?" In the sense that she meant that 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 she 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."

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.

See also

• Intraparietal sulcus
• Intentionality
• Process art
• Mindfulness

References

• G. E. M. Anscombe, Intention
• Donald Davidson, Essays on Actions and Events