Definition of Intentionality

The term intentionality is often simplistically summarized as "aboutness" or the relationship between mental acts and the external world. Originally intentionality was a concept from scholastic philosophy. The concept of intentionality was later reintroduced in 19th century contemporary philosophy by the philosopher and psychologist Franz Brentano in his work Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint (1874). Brentano defined intentionality as one characteristic of "mental phenomena," by which they could be distinguished from "physical phenomena" (physische Phänomene), using such phrases as "reference to a content", the "direction towards an object", or "the immanent objectivity".