[lojban] Re: le gusta co minde mutce

[tijlan <picos.picos@gmail.com>]

2008/11/12 Elias Friedman <skierb27@gmail.com>:

> "To buy butter, I go to the market" and "I go to the market to buy butter"
> are fully synonymous.

They are, linguistically.

> The order of "to buy butter" and "I go to the market"
> has no effect on the sentence's meaning.

Right. My point was that their order is significant cognition-wise. A
personal motive for the action "I go to the market" in this case is a
cognitive phenomenon. The idea "to buy butter" can cognitively
motivate the action "go to the market", just like other ideas such as
"I need butter, and I have run out of butter" can.

An established intentional idea can be internally influential enough
to the point where it motivates you to do something without having you
to question the original reason for that action. Imagine: You notice
you have run out of butter. But you need butter. So you intend "to buy
butter"; you establish this idea. Later, you remember your intention
"I will buy butter", and *that* motivates you to go to the market.
Here you are self-reflectively observing a state in which you once
intended to buy butter. This state is now as objective an item as the
state "I need butter, and I have run out of butter". If the latter
state can be a motive, so can the former too. They are equaly contents
of consciousness by which the agent can be motivated to go to the
market.


> "I am willing to buy butter" is not an intention; it is a personal
> condition.  An intention would be "I intend to buy butter".

An intention is a personal condition. You intend something because you
are cognitively/psychologically/neurologically conditioned in a
particular way. You intend to buy butter because your personal
(cognitive) condition is such that you realize you have run out of
butter and you need it. Should the condition differ, your intention
would differ.

I don't see much point in drawing a line between "I am willing to buy
butter" and "I intend to buy butter" for this matter. They are both
statements about an intentional state of "I", and they can both be
contents of consciousness by which, in a self-reflective manner, "I"
can be motivated to do something.


mu'o mi'e tijlan


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