Analysis Of Collective Intention

Brentano, F. is the first one who declare that intentionality is unique character of psychology phenomenon, and this character differentiates psychology phenomenon from physical phenomenon. After this, this notion has been discussed in detail both in phenomenology and analytic philosophy. As intention is a kind of intentional status which has very close relation with action, collective intention (group intention) is a kind of intentional status which has very close relation with collective action. If we accept that "intention" is a necessarily notion in the analysis of individual action, we should also accept that "collective intention" is a necessarily notion in the analysis of group action.The appellation "collective intention" has different means in holism and individualism, to holism, the subject of collective intention is the group itself, not the members of the group. And collective intention can't be treated as a summation of members' individual intention. Following such idea, group itself is the subject of collective belief and collective responsibility as well. Individuals can only be treated as members of a group. Strong holism even declares that there be "Extended Mind". To individualism, an important fact is that the group always consists of individuals, so we have to study collective intention within individual methodology. It is not reasonable to treat a group as an intentional subject. In this context, collective intention only exists in individual bodies. The appellation "collective intention" indicates a kind of special individual intention which appears in collective action.This dissertation will review the study of collective intention by western philosophers. We chose some representative theories to analysis and point out that J. Searle's theory is the best adequate. We will discuss the significance of collective intention theory in epilogue.