9.5.6—
The Argument from the Character—Veridicality Distinction

Finally, it seems to me that there is a fairly straightforward argument to the effect that intentional character cannot be accounted for in naturalistic terms. Intentional character was defined in terms of the aspects of intentional states that are invariant under alternative assumptions about extramental reality. Hence, it should be clear that any analysis we might give of intentional character must not depend upon anything outside the domain of experience. Notably, it must not depend upon any presumptions about (a ) correspondence to extramental objects, (b ) the causes of the intentional states, or (c ) ontological assumptions about the mind. For having an experience with the character of, say, VISUAL PRESENTATION [unicorn on my front lawn] is compatible (a ́) with there being or not being a unicorn there, (b ́) with the experience being caused by a unicorn under normal lighting conditions, a dog under abnormal conditions, LSD, or a Cartesian demon, and (c ́) with materialism, dualism, transcendental idealism, Aristotelianism, and Middle Platonism, to name a few possibilities. And it seems to follow straightforwardly from this that

any account of intentionality that is not similarly neutral cannot serve as an account of intentional character because such an account would have to be valid for all possible instances of the phenomenon it explains. In particular, an account framed in terms of assumptions about the actual nature of physical world, including human physiology, cannot be broad enough to cover all possible cases that would share a particular intentional content. Hence one cannot have a naturalistic theory of content—at least if by a "theory of content" one means something like "an account of the essential features of intentional character" as opposed to, say, "a specification of the natural systems through which intentional character is realized."^[11]