Minutes for Discussion 7 (Intentionality and Intentions),
February 23, 1999

by William Lind & Heather Springfels

1.Questionnaire about intentionality: Discussion about several of the vignettes:

Joe only hits his free throws 2% of the time.

When the class was asked how many thought that he intended to make the shot 90% said he did, but less than 50% said that the he made the shot intentionally. The reason for the difference is because the class thought that his skill level was too low for him to have made the shot intentionally

The class debated about how much skill is needed in order to classify an action as being done intentionally. Some thought that as long as there was a chance greater than 0, than it would be intentional. Others thought it would still be luck unless it was a greater percentage. (Compare the case of askin how many grains of sand are needed to make a pile.) According to the Mele article, the skill concept is vague and allows for moderate disagreement.

John whistles while he works.

When asked, not even half the class said it was intentional (counter to Mele's claim). When asked what would make his whistling more intentional, the class came up with the following additions:

When asked what would make it unintentional, the class responded:

"Sniper shoots soldier but alerts the enemy"

Everybody said he was aware he was alerting the enemy, but (out of 18),

  • only 1 person said he wanted to alert the enemy
  • 4 people said he intended to alert the enemy
  • 3 people said that he alerted the enemy intentionally

Everybody agreed that alerting the enemy was a side effect of the intention to killing the soldier. He did not do it accidentally, but most felt uncomfortable saying that he did it intentionally. If he had the chance of shooting without alerting the enemy, he would. This shows that he didn’t intend to alert the enemy. In a different situation, say the sniper is a mole and hence really on the side of the enemy, the side effect of alerting the enemy would be desired, intendedn, and would become intentional.

Similar unintentional action that do not happen by accident; examples:

  • Dentist probably does not intend to cause pain, but he intentionally gives patient a painful shot.
  • Kamikaze or terrorist non-intentionally kills himself while intentionally crashing his plane, intending to wipe out enemy ships. His intention of killing the enemy outweighed his intention of not dying. In most cases, dying is not desired, so it becomes non-intentional, but a necessary siude-effect of the more highly valued goal. (For some Kamikaze, the dying may itself be a goal — bestowing honor on his family.)

"Shooting a basket from half court"

More skill is correlated with more intentionality (or more confidence in intentionality judgments). Some argued that, as long as player has intention, desire, and awareness, the level of skill only needs to be above zero for the action to be seen as intentionally. Others required more than that (even though the precise amount may vary from context to context).

2. Other Topics

Do therapists really have skill or is it all an illusion?

Therapist who tries to heal a patient has belief, desire, and awareness; but do they have skill? (Some critics of psychoanalysis would argue they do not.) If 60 out of 100 people get better all on their own and the healing rate is not much better, did therapists intentionally heal their patients?

The amount of credit a therapist receives as intentionally helping a patient depends on his or her skill level. It’s a fine line between skill and luck and is sometimes very hard to tell the difference between the two.

Self serving biases can influence intentionality judgments
  • Hitting a triple bulls-eye is seen more as intentional and skill if it is done by you, compared to someone else
  • People give themselves more credit for outcomes (even if perhaps brought about by luck) than they give others

Emotions & morality can influence intentionality judgments

People tend to ascribe more blame for situations that are morally wrong. This could cause them to say that the action was more intentionally done, than if it had been something that was less emotionally stirring. The higher the emotional content of a situation, the higher the people rate an action in it as intentional