The Intentional Stance

    According to Dennett, “all there is to being a true believer [i.e., an intentional system] is being a system whose behavior is reliably predictable via the intentional strategy” (Dennett True Believers, 72; brackets added). Suppose I offer the following pseudo-Aristotelian theory in order to predict the behavior of rocks and other heavy objects: Rocks and other heavy objects desire to return to the earth from which they came. Hence, when they are thrown into the air, they return to the earth. (a) What is the intentional strategy? (b) How does Dennett’s view avoid the consequence that rocks and other heavy objects really have desires as posited by the pseudoAristotelian view?