ABSTRACT
A typical mental state, for example a belief, is generally about something. You may believe that Hawaii is a beautiful place, in which case your belief is about Hawaii. This characteristic of being about something is what philosophers call intentionality. 1 Many philosophers, moreover, view intentionality as a feature that differentiates mental states from other phenomena of nature. The goal of this chapter is to introduce the phenomenon of intentionality and to discuss why some philosophers have viewed it as presenting an obstacle to developing scientific accounts of mental phenomena. In chapter 4, we turn to some strategies other philosophers have proposed to explain intentionality in a scientifically acceptable manner.
