ABSTRACT
One of the most effective ways of getting at the sense of an argument is by way of a characterization of the opposition against which it is or seems to see itself as being directed. Of course, very young beginners, mental defectives, some mentally afflicted and, for all that the author prepared to argue one way or the other, some animals at least may be said to participate to some extent, and indeed be practically accepted as to some extent participating, in discourse without them being supposed to have gained (or retained) any insight into or mastery of reflexive modes of speech or thought; and many of them may in fact lack the empirical potential for acquiring it. Artefacts, in the author view anyhow, two-bitsers, for example, or robots of very much more complex purpose and ingenuity of design, typically have only a ‘derived intentionality’, that is an intentionality derived from that of their designers and makers.
