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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Dusty, dark, cold, and hard, coal has no beauty of its own, but when it is consummated by fire it is beautiful and becomes what it was designed to be.

War. War never changes.

If he says he doesn't love you anymore and does love this other woman, you've got to accept it. Maybe he will come back, maybe he won't, but either way, you've got to live through this.

You know, in my hometown of Hope, Arkansas, the three sacred heroes were Jesus, Elvis, and FDR, not necessarily in that order.

No matter what is the environment around you, it is always possible to maintain your brand of integrity

Little by little people are understanding that we need to change, but whatever we decide to do in next 10 to 15 years will decide the future of biodiversity on Earth.

She said she usually cried at least once each day not because she was sad, but because the world was so beautiful and life was so short.

I don't like going on stage. Stages mean "nervous" for me.

I was free. Every day, when you're on the run, is the whole of your life. Every free minute is a short story with a happy ending.

Religion is organized to satisfy and guide the soul -- politics does the same thing for the body.