Many people mistakenly suppose that the essence of consciousness is that of a control mechanism

An utterance can have Intentionality, just as a belief has Intentionality, but whereas the Intentionality of the belief is intrinsic the Intentionality of the utterance is derived.

Our tools are extensions of our purposes, and so we find it natural to make metaphorical attributions of intentionality to them; but I take it no philosophical ice is cut by such examples.

The Intentionality of the mind not only creates the possibility of meaning, but limits its forms.

We often attribute 'understanding' and other cognitive predicates by metaphor and analogy to cars, adding machines, and other artifacts, but nothing is proved by such attributions.

I want to block some common misunderstandings about "understanding": In many of these discussions one finds a lot of fancy footwork about the word "understanding."

You can't *discover* that the brain is a digital computer. You can only *interpret* the brain as a digital computer.

Where consciousness is concerned, the appearance is the reality.

"Akrasia" [weakness of will] in rational beings is as common as wine in France.

The problem posed by indirect speech acts is the problem of how it is possible for the speaker to say one thing and mean that but also to mean something else.

Whatever is referred to must exist. Let us call this the axiom of existence.

Failures, repeated failures, are finger-prints on the road to achievement. .

Larry wanted us to reposition the tower. We wouldn't, and won't. He's been holding back our fees. We want to get paid. And that's it. It'll get solved and we'll carry on with planning Ground Zero.

It's so legato it's difficult to splice. Sibelius was famous for that.

Terrorists always have the advantage of surprise.

If you watch a stretch of TV for a few hours, there is a good chance you'll hear me on some commercial or in some documentary or on a cartoon as some voice of a character.

Knowledge is no longer an immobile solid; it has been liquefied. it is actively moving in all the currents of society itself

Clutch the bramble and you will be pricked.

When I got through, Duke Ellington stood up and started the applause.

Should array indices start at 0 or 1? My compromise of 0.5 was rejected without, I thought, proper consideration.

Madness is a kind of mental suicide.