ABSTRACT
In general, physics seeks to understand how things change. Mechanics, a branch of physics, seeks specifically to understand inanimate motions. Biomechanics, a branch of kinesiology, seeks to understand animate motions, or movements. Our aim as psychologists is to understand how goals and/or intentions influence animate motions—a problem for ecological mechanics, or, more generally, for intentional dynamics (Shaw, Kugler, & Kinsella–Shaw, 1990; Kugler & Shaw, 1990). Traditionally, this problem has been located in the field of philosophy, later, in the collective discipline of cybernetics and control theory, and still more recently, in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics. Motivational and cognitive psychology have each perennially addressed certain aspects of the problem without appreciably reducing its problematical core. In spite of the generous efforts of all of these disciplines, the role of intention in guiding self-motivated systems still remains shrouded in mystery and haunted by the recursive presence of unexorcised ghosts.
