Restricted deflationism: Why the deflationist project needs at least a little bit of intentionality

Abstract

Frances Egan argues for a deflationist view of intentionality, on which intentionality is merely part of a pragmatically motivated explanatory “gloss” on theories of mind and behavior. While sympathetic to the project, I worry that the view is inadvertently committed to genuine intentionality: For intentionality to be a mere pragmatically motivated gloss on our theories, theorists must accept theories with particular glosses and have other theory‐directed attitudes, which seem to be genuinely intentional. I suggest that we adopt a restricted deflationism, accepting some instances of intentionality but not others. This view preserves the spirit, though not the letter, of Egan's.