[FRIAM] Intentionality is the mark of the vital

[Jochen Fromm]

I must admit I was not fully aware of the
philosophical background for "intentionality"
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/intentionality/
Maybe I confused "intentionality" with intentions.
I am not sure what "intentionality" really means.
Nevertheless, the aspect of "intentionality" as 
world-directedness seems to be interesting (lat. 
"intendere" means being directed towards some goal 
or thing, to aim in a particular direction): 
"intentionality" as existence of a "force" which 
directs evolution and constraints a sequence of 
events (incl. possible behaviors and actions). Systems 
with "intentions" can be considered as organizers, 
they try to organize things by imposing their order 
specified in internal plans or schemas on the sequence of 
external events.

Liveless, physical material has no intentions, even
if it is subject to evolution (evolution as gradual 
development through time, lat. "evolvere" means to 
unfold, unroll), it evolves usually towards a more 
uniform, disordered state. Evolution in general 
is not directed into a particular direction. It 
has no direction, no plan and no goal. A closed 
system without non-living elements evolves always 
towards greater disorder, to a more equally
distributed state. 

-J.