intentionality

intentional +‎ -ity

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intentionality (countable and uncountable, plural intentionalities)

1. (philosophy) The defining characteristic of the mental state of a person when deliberating about an intention.
   • 1983, John R. Searle, Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind, page 1,

     As a preliminary formulation we might say: Intentionality is that property of many mental states and events by which they are directed at or about or of objects and states of affairs in the world.

   • 1986, Don Ihde, Experimental Phenomenology: An Introduction, page 23,

     For phenomenology, the central feature of experience is a structure called "intentionality," which correlates all things experienced with the mode of experience to which the experience is referenced.

   • 2001, Lois Bloom, Erin Tinker, Ellin Kofsky Scholnick, The Intentionality Model and Language Acquisition, page 10,

     Causality in the Intentionality Model is in the agency of the child. It is the child who perceives, who apprehends, who constructs the intentional state, who acts to express it, and who interprets what others do (including what they say) to construct a new intentional state.

• unintentionality