Abstract

Intentionality and emergence are both huge and contested topics in philosophy. Rather than surveying the enormous literature that each topic has generated, I’ll begin with some general remarks about the idea of intentionality, followed by a brief sketch of a mainstream construal of emergence (Jaegwon Kim’s). Then I shall consider four possible ways that intentionality and emergence may be related and criticize three of them. The remaining view – the one that I support – is strong emergence based on my constitution view of the material world.