Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!violet!cpshelley
From: cpshelley@violet.uwaterloo.ca (cameron shelley)
Subject: Re: What does intentionality have that AI doesn't.....
Message-ID: <1991Mar14.150044.12197@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Owner of Many System Processes)
Organization: University of Waterloo
References: <13503@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU>
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1991 15:00:44 GMT
Lines: 41

In article <13503@ccncsu.ColoState.EDU> petersja@debussy.cs.colostate.edu (james peterson) writes:
[...]
>
>What it is about "intentionality" the lack of which would impede the 
>implementation of intelligent behavior artificially is related to the
>problem of "relevance."  How is it that intelligent creatures are capable
>of selecting from their manifold inputs that portion which will be considered 
>as important, and that which is to be ignored?  How is it, moreover, that
>intelligent creatures are able to assign relative values to parts of
>the environment related to importance, and readjust these relative values
>as they procede?
>
>Frames and scripts, it seems to me, gloss over this difficulty by assigning
>relevance in advance.  The hard problem is to account for how relevance
>comes about in the first place, and how it develops...
>
>What makes assignments of relevance possible on an ongoing basis is 
>*motivation* --- things, parts of the environment, are relevant, important, or
>interesting precisely in the context of some *purpose*  ...

If I can inject a tangential remark here, we should be aware of a traditional
division of vocabulary on this issue, namely that between *intention* and
*intension*.

Intention is related to "intent" and usually refers to a predisposition
to some action or view.  In this sense, any program has intention --- it
is created to fulfil a specific purpose normally in a specific manner.

Intension is related to "intense" and usually means whatever the author
wants it to, but in this context it refers to "the content of a notion",
or let's say "the meaning of an intention".  In philosophy (so far as I
can tell), it also denotes "the ability to form intentions" plus some
intangible spin.  Call it "motivation" or "purpose" if you like.

The "spin" causes all the mental thrashing (poetic justice?).

--
      Cameron Shelley        | "Belladonna, n.  In Italian a beautiful lady;
cpshelley@violet.waterloo.edu|  in English a deadly poison.  A striking example
    Davis Centre Rm 2136     |  of the essential identity of the two tongues."
 Phone (519) 885-1211 x3390  |				Ambrose Bierce