Intentionality II

O My Servant! Obey Me and I shall make thee like unto Myself. I say 'Be,' and it is, and thou shalt say 'Be,' and it shall be.

            (Baha'u'llah, The Four Valleys: 63)

I am attempting in these early posts on Intentionality to lay a groundwork for perceiving Intentionality as a power of consciousness.  That is no secret, after all what else could it be?  But Intentionality has, in the modern day, only been discussed as a human power.  For me, the intentions of human beings are part of a field of possibility opened up by each Revelation. Baha’u’llah writes that: “In every age and cycle He hath, through the splendorous light shed by the Manifestations of His wondrous Essence, recreated all things, so that whatsoever reflecteth in the heavens and on the earth the signs of His glory may not be deprived of the outpourings of His mercy, nor despair of the showers of His favors. How all-encompassing are the wonders of His boundless grace! Behold how they have pervaded the whole of creation.” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah: 61-62)

The concept of intentionality was central to the philosophy of the Middle Ages.  Medieval philosophers, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, took the concept from their studies of Islamic philosophy.  In the medieval view, intentionality was a way of discovering structure in the universe.  That is, it was a powerful way to understand both human and physical nature. 

However, after the general acceptance of Descartes complete split between body and mind and a materialistic understanding of the self and the universe was consolidated, the concept of intentionality fell out of use, replaced by a mechanical explanation of all phenomena.  Intentionality was reintroduced by Franz Brentano in the last half of the nineteenth century.  The concept was further advanced by both Sigmund Freud and the phenomenologists Edmund Husserl, and has grown to be accepted as part of human endowment. 

Quantum mechanics helps explain the effect of human intentions on the natural world.   Intention is what creates the full reality of a physical state or condition, an ordering of energy into specific attributes, a moving from becoming to being.  Last post said that in the philosophy that has grown up from quantum mechanics sub-atomic matter takes form from the intention of the observer/participator.  This is another example of human subject completing the processes of nature.  Perhaps it is the fact that “the universe is enfolded within thee” that enables us to do this.  The universe is enfolded within us in the way described by the Bab: “Verily hath God created within thyself the similitude of all that He hath fashioned in creation, that thou mayest not be veiled from any effulgence.”  (Understanding the Writings of the Bab: 43)

This also links up with our discussion of the four causes (formal, final, material and efficient) that go into the creation of anything.  I see Nature as operating on purely material and efficient causality, a two-part structure/stricture of creativity, whereas human creativity is a four-part structure and process that includes the formal and final causes.  Formal and final provide the origin and the purpose, ontos and telos, of the thing, the envisioned intention and the imagined purpose.  The structural impact of any interplay of the human observer and Nature is completed in and by the subjectivity of the human observer, who gives it form and purpose. 

The mind as the unconscious processes of creation is as the processes of nature.  Mind completes nature.  “On another occasion 'Abdu'l-Bahá said with regard to the same subject, "All that we see around us is the work of mind. It is mind in the herb and in the mineral that acts on the human body, and changes its condition." (Abdu'l-Baha in London:95)

Consciousness, then, is a general power that not only holds the universe together, but also is an emergent power that manifests in some new form when a certain level of organization is needed among interacting parts.  Taken as a whole, creation progresses upward from mineral through human, every higher level of organization of life is also a different and more complex form of consciousness.  With every greater complexity new meanings are knowable and new possibilities for thought and behaviour become manifest.  In the evolution of life, all this drives toward what de Chardin called “the noosphere,” (Pierre Teihard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man) the integrated fabric of mental process that envelops all life, and which is, according to de Chardin, the highest level of consciousness now appearing on earth.

Currently, writers such as psychoanalyst Rollo May and the philosopher John Searle, view intentionality as the process of creating one’s reality through directed consciousness and action. (Rollo May, Love and Will and John Searle, Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind)  It is the examination of will and volition and its power to realize desire. That is, manifesting what already exists as possibility to be manifested.  But I find May’s discussion a bit deeper.

            Both May and Searle would say that intentionality is the means by which the subjective state of the individual and the objective state of the world interact and co-evolve in their relationship. Each act of intentionality tends toward something and has within it, no matter how latent, some commitment to meaningful action. According to May, however, intentionality is not mere voluntary or purposive action.  It is not just the succession of conscious intents: I choose to do this or that. Intentionality, rather, refers to a state of being, the creating of meaningful experience, and involves the person's whole orientation to the world.  “By intentionality,” writes May, “I mean the structure which gives meaning to experience.  It is not to be identified with intentions, but is a dimension which underlies them; it is man’s capacity to have intentions.” (Love and Will: 223-224)

            There are far-reaching implications in this discussion.  It makes intentionality the pivotal mental property in the transformation of the conditions within which human action takes place. Intentionality is the dimension linking mind and matter, fitting the mind to the world in a cause and effect relationship.  We are the creators of our universe in the sense that we create a particular set of relationships that organizes our perceptions in a certain way, so that the world reflects what we put into it.

            However, our discussion of intentionality does not end there.  Humanity and nature are in a co-evolutionary process.  But humanity is the more important partner in the relationship, for though nature may have consciousness, only humanity has self-consciousness and the rational intellect.  “Possessing this gift,” ‘Abdu’l-Baha states, “the human reality is the sum of earlier creations....Man alone, among created beings, has this wonderful power.” (Paris Talks: 41)

          Though unified, (i.e. nature and humanity in a state of coherence with humanity completing nature) this unity of nature and humanity is incomplete, because it is evolving, and in need of a higher order to make it complete.  Humanity completes nature, but can not complete itself.  There is a third party to the relationship that unites and completes them.  We’ll find out more about that completing power and how it does its work in the next posts.