How Words Help Us Think: An Externalist Account of Representational Intentionality

A capacity to act for reasons is a key indicator of intelligence. A leaf floats this way and that as the wind currents shift, a drone moves up or down with the movements of its controller, but a cognitive agent decides to walk to the store to get some food. This deliberative capacity to think through hypothetical situations, to choose between the grocery store or the restaurant, requires representational intentionality, the ability to think about real and possible situations in the world. A...