ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author focuses on intentionality in its narrower sense, involving the idea of action performed on purpose. Ryle defended the methods used in ordinary language philosophy by asking why the child’s need to count noses if they got one ourselves; that is, one’s own intuitions provide perfectly satisfactory data. The child’s concept of intention is gradually developed, as is the child’s stock of intention terms. Young children may appear to understand intention when one term is used, and not when another intention term is used. The most important feature of children’s concept of promising, distinguishing it from that of adults, is that they do not think of promising simply as something done with words; for them it is not promising without the promised performance.
