ABSTRACT
In both contemporary analytic philosophy and contemporary continental philosophy, mainstream discussions in the philosophy of mind often use the concept of intentionality as a central component. This chapter reaches back into the Middle Ages and dusts off, as it were, an earlier theory of intentionality, one found in the writings of Thomas Aquinas. This discussion is an instance of what John Haldane, in his October 1997 issue of The Monist, referred to as “Analytical Thomism,” and he exhibits this approach to working with the texts of Thomas Aquinas in a recently edited volume entitled Mind, Metaphysics and Value in the Thomistic and Analytical Tradition.1 An English Dominican, Brian Davies, formerly of Blackfriars at the University of Oxford and now at Fordham University, is another leading figure in analytic approaches to Aquinas. The April 1999 issue of Oxford’s New Blackfriars was devoted to a discussion by contemporary philosophers of this concept of “Analytical Thomism.” Many younger analytic philosophers have adopted Haldane’s approach, which he has spelled out in various essays.2 This discussion focuses attention principally on what Aquinas contributed to contemporary discussions on intentionality theory in analytic philosophy. Haldane’s analyses of these issues are instructive, and this discussion appeals often to his insightful essays and utilizes the approach to medieval philosophy that Haldane has described.
