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    Comments on James Madden’s Essay (2017) A Thomistic Theory of Intentionality
    Comments on James Madden’s Essay (2017) A Thomistic Theory of Intentionality
    Comments on James Madden’s Essay (2017) A Thomistic Theory of Intentionality
    Ebook41 pages17 minutes

    Comments on James Madden’s Essay (2017) A Thomistic Theory of Intentionality

    By Razie Mah

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    About this ebook

    This work comments an essay titled, “Is a Thomistic Theory of Intentionality Consistent with Physicalism?” The original author is James D. Madden. The article appears in the Winter 2017 edition of the American Catholic Quarterly (91:1-28).
    Madden’s essay covers a lot of interesting territory. He defines simple and rational intent. He associates the first to weakly non-physical processes and the latter to strongly non-physical processes. He shows how this association is inconsistent with physicalism. Then, he answers objections.
    This work re-articulates Madden’s essay into the format of the category-based nested form. The results complement the interscope developed in A Primer on the Individual in Community. Both simple and rational intent belong to the realm of possibility. This automatically puts them out of the reach of naive physicalism.
    Despite this, specialized neural structures process simple and rational intent. The modules are adaptations into a niche. Simple and rational intent constitute two niches. Consequently, Darwinism provides an interesting twist that supports Madden’s intuition.
    The comments conclude with a hypothesis on why universals are crucial for rational intentionality.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRazie Mah
    Release dateApr 8, 2017
    ISBN9781942824312
    Comments on James Madden’s Essay (2017) A Thomistic Theory of Intentionality
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    Razie Mah

    See website for bio.

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      Comments on James Madden’s Essay (2017) A Thomistic Theory of Intentionality - Razie Mah

      Comments on James Madden’s Essay (2017) A Thomistic Theory of Intentionality

      By Razie Mah

      Published for Smashwords.com

      2017

      Notes on Text

      This work comments on a recent essay published by James D. Madden in the Winter 2017 Edition of The American Catholic Quarterly (volume 91(1), pgs 1-28), under the title, Is a Thomistic Theory of Intentionality Consistent with Physicalism?

      Of course, the short answer is no. But, on the way to that answer, Madden covers a lot of interesting territory. My goal is to re-articulate this territory, from hylomorphism to emblems, in the specialized language of the category-based nested form.

      ‘Words that belong together’ are denoted by single quotes or italics.

      Table of Contents

      Abstract 0001

      Section 1.2 0016

      Section 1.1 0024

      Section 1.3 0027

      Section 2.1 0031

      Section 2.2 0039

      Section 2.3 0049

      Section 3.1 0092

      Section 3.2 0103

      Abstract

      0001 In his essay, James D. Madden formulates a Thomistic theory of intentionality. He shows that this theory is both plausible and inconsistent with physicalism.

      0002 What is physicalism?

      First, all things are made of matter. Second, the physical nature of matter explains the workings of all things.

      How simple is that?

      0003 Against this simplicity stands a hylomorphic philosophy of nature. Even though all things may be made of matter, the physical nature of matter does not explain the nature of all things.

      0004 What else is required?

      Clearly, something not physical is required. I may

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