Minds without Magic: The Natural Basis of Intentionality

Talk about intentional states and mental content is deeply entrenched in folk psychology, scientific psychology and cognitive ethology. Nevertheless, intentionality itself remains a puzzling phenomenon. Philosophers have long tried to anchor intentional notions in the non-intentional natural world, using concepts like “causation”, “information” or “function”. These theories have encountered severe difficulties. In recent years, however, there have been fresh attempts at explanatory approaches linking intentionality to informational, causal-dispositional or functional facts. The goal of this workshop is to explore the prospects of these approaches. The main focus will be on teleosemantics, but alternative naturalistic accounts and general questions concerning the use of intentional notions will also be explored. 

Participation is free of charge, but please register beforehand by sending an email to [email protected].

A detailed schedule is available on the website (see link below). The venue of the workshop is room A3-126 (Senatssaal) at Bielefeld University.