Intentionality is simply that feature of the mind by way of which it is “directed at” or “about” objects and states of affairs in the world. Now, not all conscious states are intentional, and not all intentional states are conscious. It’s possible to have forms of depression and anxiety where you don’t know what you’re anxious about, or you know don’t what you’re depressed about, or elation, where you just feel good.–Some of my students take chemicals that make them just have a feeling of well-being, but they don’t feel good _about_ anything. Those are the non-intentional cases. But for the intentional cases there’s an answer to the question ‘well, what is it that you’re happy about?’, or ‘what is it that you’re depressed about?’. I gave a lecture on this subject once to an audience of psychoanalysts, and they got very excited, and said, “yes, that’s our job. Our job is to convert the non-intentional cases of anxiety where the patient is anxious but doesn’t know what he’s anxious about, into the intentional cases, where the patient knows now what he’s worried about, or what he’s anxious about”. It reminded me of Freud saying, “the aim of psychoanalysis is to replace neurotic misery with ordinary human unhappiness”, and I guess it’s characteristic of ordinary human unhappiness that you know what you’re unhappy about–it is _intentionalistic_. – John Rogers Searle
Intentionality is simply that feature of the mind by way of which it is “directed at” or “about” objects and states of affairs in the world. Now, not all conscious states are intentional, and not all intentional states are conscious. It’s possible to have forms of depression and anxiety where you don’t know what you’re anxious about, or you know don’t what you’re depressed about, or elation, where you just feel good.–Some of my students take chemicals that make them just have a feeling of well-being, but they don’t feel good _about_ anything. Those are the non-intentional cases. But for the intentional cases there’s an answer to the question ‘well, what is it that you’re happy about?’, or ‘what is it that you’re depressed about?’. I gave a lecture on this subject once to an audience of psychoanalysts, and they got very excited, and said, “yes, that’s our job. Our job is to convert the non-intentional cases of anxiety where the patient is anxious but doesn’t know what he’s anxious about, into the intentional cases, where the patient knows now what he’s worried about, or what he’s anxious about”. It reminded me of Freud saying, “the aim of psychoanalysis is to replace neurotic misery with ordinary human unhappiness”, and I guess it’s characteristic of ordinary human unhappiness that you know what you’re unhappy about–it is _intentionalistic_. – John Rogers Searle