[FRIAM] intension/extension

[Jon Zingale]

Nick,

>From the Stanford Encyclopedia article:

"Although the meaning of the word ‘intentionality’ in contemporary
philosophy is related to the meanings of such words as ‘intension’ (or
‘intensionality’ with an *s*) and ‘intention,’ nonetheless it ought not to
be confused with either of them. On the one hand, in contemporary English,
‘intensional’ and ‘intensionality’ mean ‘non-extensional’ and
‘non-extensionality,’ where both extensionality and intensionality are
logical features of words and sentences. For example, ‘creature with a
heart’ and ‘creature with a kidney’ have the same extension because they
are true of the same individuals: all the creatures with a kidney are
creatures with a heart. But the two expressions have different intensions
because the word ‘heart’ does not have the same extension, let alone the
same meaning, as the word ‘kidney.’ On the other hand, intention and
intending are specific states of mind that, unlike beliefs, judgments,
hopes, desires or fears, play a distinctive role in the etiology of
actions. By contrast, intentionality is a pervasive feature of many
different mental states: beliefs, hopes, judgments, intentions, love and
hatred all exhibit intentionality. In fact, Brentano held that
intentionality is the hallmark of the mental: much of twentieth century
philosophy of mind has been shaped by what, in this entry, will be referred
to as “Brentano’s third thesis.”"

One point you made in chat that I found interesting is the
possible intersection of the two concepts. You mention that
an individual who bought a ticket for the Titanic did not intend
to buy a ticket for a sinking ship. You suggest a sort of *closure*
operator which acts over entailments. If we consider a space
of entailments and objects to be defined by these *closures*,
perhaps *intentionality* becomes *intensionality*. The sea-farer's
*intent* is to buy a ticket for a sinking ship, *intensionally*.

Jon
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