The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the function of imperatives in dialogue. In particular, the focus is on the use of logically complex imperatives (e.g., ‘Say hello to John, if you meet him’) and temporal reference in imperatives (e.g., ‘Open the bottle of champagne at midnight’). Two specific problems involving logically complex and temporally referring imperatives are introdu...

According to recent studies in developmental psychology and neuroscience, symbolic language is essentially intersubjective. Empathetically relating to others renders possible the acquisition of linguistic constructs. Intersubjectivity develops in early ontogenetic life when interactions between mother and infant mutually shape their relatedness. Empirical findings suggest that the shared attent...

This article probes the connections between the metaphysics of meaning and the investigation of human communication. It first argues that contemporary philosophy of mind has inherited most of its metaphysical questions from Brentano’s puzzling definition of intentionality. Then it examines how intentionality came to occupy the forefront of 40 pragmatics in three steps. (1) By investigating spee...

Intentionality is most broadly characterized as mind’s directedness upon something. This broad characterization accords with our sense of the mind’s “openness to the world,” as Tim Crane (2008) puts it, or of the mind’s self-transcendence in apprehending an object, as a phenomenologist might put it. Such language captures the ordinary belief that one is directly and without mediation aware of o...

By focussing on the intentional character of observation in science, we argue that Constructive Empiricism—B.C. van Fraassen’s much debated and explored view of science—is inconsistent. We then argue there are at least two ways out of our Inconsistency Argument, one of which is more easily to square with Constructive Empiricism than the other. 1 The Inconsistency Argument We shall argue that th...

In this paper I assess the extent to which Daniel Dennett’s Intentional Stance Theory fits into the overall proposal for a programme on naturalizing mental content outlined by Daniel Hutto and Glenda Satne in this issue (Philosophia 43, 2015). I argue that in order to fit the proposal, two changes need to be made: (1) the reality of intentional states should not (just) be grounded in the realit...

Presence is the experience of being somewhere arising from the interplay of technological, psychological and bodily factors. Experiences, generally – though there are exceptionsTPPT, are a consequence of interactions with things and events in the world. Thus to experience is to experience something. Ordinarily these somethings are objects and events in the world but in presence research these a...

Fairness is a key concept in social interactions and is influenced by intentionality considerations. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, we investigated the neural correlates of fairness by focusing on responder behavior to unfair offers in an Ultimatum Game paradigm with conditions that differed in their intentionality constraints. Brain activity underlying rejection vs accept...