Intentionality, perception, logical structure

“Logical structure” penetrates perception. As long as we perceive, even in a very primitive stage, intentionality functions in a structured way. The phenomena of “Certainty”, “Negation”, “Conjunction”, “Disjunction” and “Modality” can already be found at this primitive level.

However, at this level, it cannot be said that the experience is already “conceptual”, as it does not makes use of any concepts, such as “one”, “another”, “being”, “not”, “and”, “or” and “possible”, nevertheless it is “logical” in a sense. Whether experience should have all of the forms is an open question, however, it is beyond doubt that without the structure, experience is not possible at all.

The conditional, i.e., “if…then…” structure is somewhat complicated, because it originates from a somewhat complicated form of intentionality: protention, expectation.

However, the structure of Subject and Predicate, i.e., F(x), in predicate logic is a perhaps only a special example of pure logic which has something to do with our specific form of (temporal-spatially embodied) consciousness.

All the similar and identical features of various languages can be explained in a philosophy of mind which deals descriptively with intentionality. The privilege of this approach is that it explains the universal structure of language via descriptions of intentionality, and it does not have to make use of transcendental arguments to argue for the truth of some kind of a priori structure. It has great explanatory power as well as intuitiveness of demonstration.

Philosophy of language and philosophy of logic are branches of philosophy of mind. And insofar as philosophy of mind concerns itself with consciousness, it concerns with the universal structure of consciousness, i.e., intentionality.