Mind: A Brief Introduction (John R. Searle) / quote 29 of 138
How thoughts reach out to the world
The special philosophical problem of intentionality is this: suppose that I now believe that George W. Bush is in Washington. The question arises, How can my thoughts, which are entirely inside my mind, reach out all the way to Washington, D.C.? If I think the sun is 93 million miles from the earth, how is it, again, that my thoughts can reach out and refer beyond themselves? The problem of how a mental state can refer to or be about something beyond itself is the problem of intentionality.