Franz Brentano Intentionality
<p>Jul 25, 2008 12:39 PM
 
German Philosopher, psychologist, priest.  1838 to 1917 ...  influenced Freud and Edmund Husserl.
 
While often simplistically summarised as "aboutness" or the relationship between mental acts and the external world, Brentano defined it as the main characteristic of <i>mental phenomena</i>, by which they could be distinguished from <i>physical phenomena</i>. Every mental phenomenon, <b>every psychological act has content, is directed at an object</b> (the <a title="Intentional object" href="/wiki/Intentional_object" class="mw-redirect"><i>intentional object</i></a>). Every belief, desire etc.<b> has an object that they are about: the believed, the wanted.</b> Brentano used the expression "intentional inexistence" to indicate the status of the objects of thought in the mind.
 
So, intentionality is really the  ATTENDED OBJECT  and  all the contents of experience are attended objects...
which throws into relief  THE OBSERVING SELF and THE ATTENDED OBJECT.</p>