
[Middle English entencioun, from Old French intention, from Latin intentiō, intentiōn-, from intentus, intent, from past participle of intendere, to direct attention. See intend.]
SYNONYMS intention, intent, purpose, goal, end, aim, object, objective. These nouns refer to what one plans to do or achieve. Intention simply signifies a course of action that one proposes to follow: It is my intention to take a vacation next month. Intent more strongly implies deliberateness: The executor complied with the testator's intent. Purpose strengthens the idea of resolution or determination: "His purpose was to discover how long these guests intended to stay" (Joseph Conrad). Goal may suggest an idealistic or long-term purpose: The college's goal was to raise ten million dollars for a new library. End suggests a long-range goal: The candidate wanted to win and pursued every means to achieve that end. Aim stresses the direction one's efforts take in pursuit of an end: The aim of most students is to graduate. An object is an end that one tries to carry out: The object of chess is to capture your opponent's king. Objective often implies that the end or goal can be reached: The report outlines the committee's objectives.
I have no intention—no present intention—of standing for Parliament—Harold Macmillan, 1979
He went to Cambridge to read Natural Science, with the intention of becoming a geologist—H. Carpenter, 1981
He has given notice of his intention to turn up this evening—Kingsley Amis, 1980
It was never the intention to start the second battle of Maldon—Essex Chronicle, 2004.
| intensifier, intense, intensive, intend | |
| inter alia, inter, intern, inter-, intra- |
For more information on intention, visit Britannica.com.
To have an intention is to be in a state of mind that is favourably directed towards bringing about (or maintaining, or avoiding) some state of affairs, but which is not a mere desire or wish, since it also sets the subject on a course to bring that state of affairs about. The notion thus inherits all the problems of intentionality. The specific problems it raises include characterizing the difference between doing something accidentally and doing it intentionally. The suggestion that the difference lies in a preceding act of mind or volition is not very happy, since one may automatically do what is nevertheless intentional, for example putting one's foot forward while walking. Conversely, unless the formation of a volition is intentional, and thus raises the same questions, the presence of a volition might be unintentional or beyond one's control. Intentions are more finely grained than movements: one set of movements may both be answering the question and starting a war, yet the one may be intentional and the other not.
— Richard L. Gregory
(DOD) An aim or design (as distinct from capability) to execute a specified course of action.
n.
The mind's sense of the prevalence of one set of influences over another set; an effect whose cause is the imminence, immediate or remote, of the performance of an involuntary act.
When a man says he approves of something in principle, it means he hasn't the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.
— Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), German statesman.
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Quotes:
"The greatest events occur without intention playing any part in them; chance makes good mistakes and undoes the most carefully planned undertaking. The world's greatest events are not produced, they happen."
- Georg C. Lichtenberg
"What is the quality of your intent?"
- Thurgood Marshall
"I am sure of nothing so little as my own intentions."
- Lord Byron
"No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he only had good intentions. He had money as well."
- Margaret Thatcher
"Hell is paved with good intentions, not with bad ones. All men mean well."
- George Bernard Shaw
"His designs were strictly honorable, as the phrase is; that is, to rob a lady of her fortune by way of marriage."
- Henry Fielding
See more famous quotes about Intentions
A manner of healing, e.g. first intention when a surgical incision heals immediately, second intention when a gaping wound fills with granulation tissue and is then covered from the sides with epithelium. See also wound healing.
Intention is an agent's specific purpose in performing an action or series of actions, the end or goal that is aimed at. Outcomes that are unanticipated or unforeseen are known as unintended consequences.
Intentional behavior can also be just thoughtful and deliberate goal-directedness. Recent research in experimental philosophy has shown that other factors may also matter for whether or not an action is counted as intentional.
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G.E.M. Anscombe made the topic of intentional action a major topic of analytic philosophy with her 1957 work Intention. She argued that intentional action was coextensive with action of which one could ask "why were you doing that?" In the sense that Anscombe meant her question, it was "refused application" by the answer "I was not aware that I was doing that", but not by "for no reason at all". Therefore Anscombe held that it was possible to act intentionally for no reason at all. She also claimed that intentional action was subject to "knowledge without observation", and that all intentional action involved acting under a description.
In deontological ethics the intent of an act is the way in which a maxim is supposed to be executed.[citation needed]
In recent years, there has been a large amount of work done on the concept of intentional action in experimental philosophy.[1] This work has aimed at illuminating and understanding the factors which influence people's judgments of whether an action was done intentionally. For instance, research has shown that unintended side effects are often considered to be done intentionally if the side effect is considered bad and the person acting knew the side effect would occur before acting. Yet when the side effect is considered good, people generally don't think it was done intentionally, even if the person knew it would occur before acting. The most well-known example involves a chairman who implements a new business program for the sole purpose to make money but ends up affecting the environment in the process. If he implements his business plan and in the process he ends up helping the environment, then people generally say he unintentionally helped the environment; if he implements his business plan and in the process he ends up harming the environment, then people generally say he intentionally harmed the environment. The important point is that in both cases his only goal was to make money.[2] While there have been many explanations proposed for why the "side-effect effect" occurs, researchers on this topic have not yet reached a consensus.
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - hensigt, agt, forsæt, formål, mening, vilje
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Nederlands (Dutch)
bedoeling, opzet
Français (French)
n. - intention
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Deutsch (German)
n. - Absicht, Intention
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Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πρόθεση, σκοπός, επιδίωξη
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Português (Portuguese)
n. - intenção (f)
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Español (Spanish)
n. - intención, propósito
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Svenska (Swedish)
n. - avsikt, tanke
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
意图, 目的, 意向, 意思, 含义, 求婚意图, 愈合
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中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 意圖, 目的, 意向, 意思, 含義, 求婚意圖, 癒合
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日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 意図, 意志, 目的, 結婚の意志, 意味, 趣旨
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العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) عزم, تصيم, قصد
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - כוונה, מטרה, תפיסה
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