Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-495rp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-06T01:32:06.478Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Rethinking anti-intentionalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2014

Alessandro Duranti
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access

Summary

Introduction

In this book I revisit the anthropological critique of analytic philosophers’ theories of meaning and action based on speakers’ intentions. On the basis of the empirical investigation of oral communication, face-to-face interaction, and written texts, I argue that both anthropologists and analytic philosophers overstated their case and that the salience of intentions cannot be decided once and for all because it actually varies across cultural contexts. As we will see, in some cases speakers avoid any kind of discourse about intentions, focusing on the consequences of actions rather than on their alleged original goals. But in other cases, speculation about intentions is present even in societies where people have been said to avoid reading the mind of others. My goal is to support an ethnographic and interactional perspective on intentions as cognitive, emotional, and embodied dispositions always embedded in an intersubjective world of experience. To provide such a perspective, I review previous arguments made by linguistic anthropologists and return to some of the fundamental concepts and claims of speech act theory as elaborated by John Searle over the last half century. In addition to relying on the data from three research projects – one in Samoa and two in the US – I also draw from a number of theoretical perspectives, including Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology, in which both intentionality and intersubjectivity play a key role. The transcripts and written texts I analyze in some detail in the chapters to follow will demonstrate that language – broadly defined – is a great resource for us to understand how particular speakers conceptualize, perform, and understand social action. Whether or not they believe or act as if intentions matter, by using language social agents inhabit a world of others that is constraining, empowering, and inevitable. It is our task as analysts of human endeavors to examine which linguistic expressions make a difference in defining actions and assigning responsibility. Sometimes our previously conceived analytical categories provide us with a useful framework to make sense of new information. Other times, the fit is not there. An anthropological perspective must honor the universal without forgetting the particular. This book is an attempt to apply such a principle of investigation to a complex set of issues and a challenging set of data.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Anthropology of Intentions
Language in a World of Others
, pp. 1 - 10
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×