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23803 | States have content if we can predict them well by assuming intentionality |
Full Idea: Dennett maintains that a system has states with representational content if we are able to predict its behaviour reliably and voluminously by adopting the intentional stance toward it. | |||
From: report of Daniel C. Dennett (True Believers [1981]) by Peter Schulte - Mental Content 5 | |||
A reaction: Dennett himself seems happy to thereby attribute representational content to a chess-playing computer. This sounds like a test for content, rather than explaining what it is. Not promising, I think. |