Processes, Acts, and Experiences: Three Stances on the Problem of Intentionality

The concept of intentionality addresses “aboutness,” how one thing can be about, or refer to, some other thing. The argument I present in this article is that intentionality is an essential ecological concept that depends equally on process (the domain of physics), act (the domain of biology), and experience (the domain of psychology). The meaning of intentionality does not reside in any 1 of these realms, but rests simultaneously on all 3. A case is made for intentionality being rooted in a ubiquitous cosmological scheme that underwrites all systems no less than does the universal causality scheme.