Unintentional Intentionality

Abstract

Intention is a necessary condition for John Searle’s concept of derived intentionality; it is what bestows the intentionality of mental states on physical phenomena. This may be true for illocutionary acts but not for all instances of intentionality in the physical realm. I discuss cases of unintentional intentionality, starting with the example of the wave-poem by Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels (1982) and continuing with cases that implement images rather than text, that is, pareidolia. Furthermore, I criticise the dependency of the intentionality of physical phenomena on the intentionality of mind, suggested by the adjective ‘derived’.