Book cover of The Phenomenal Basis of Intentionality

Book description

Intentionality is the mind's ability to be "of," "about," or "directed" at things, or to "say" something. For example, a thought might "say" that grass is green or that Santa Claus is jolly, and a visual experience might be "of" a blue cup. While the existence of the phenomenon of…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Phenomenal Basis of Intentionality as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

What if consciousness helps bestow meanings on our concepts and words? According to Angela Mendelovici, the word "tomato" ultimately gets its meaning from your conscious experiences of tomatoes—experiences of red, round things.

More generally, consciousness provides some very simple, concrete building blocks that we can use to assemble some very complex, abstract meanings. I found it fascinating how much Mendelovici was able to push these ideas.

From Neil's list on the conscious mind.

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December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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