intelligence In government and military operations, evaluated informa¬ tion concerning the strength, activities, and probable courses of action of international actors that are usually, though not always, enemies or oppo¬ nents. The term also refers to the collection, analysis, and distribution of such information and to the secret intervention in the political or economic affairs of other countries, an activity commonly known as “covert action.” Intelligence is an important component of national power and a funda¬ mental element in decision making regarding national security, defense, and foreign policies. It is conducted on three levels: strategic, tactical, and counterintelligence. Despite the public image of intelligence operatives as cloak-and-dagger secret agents, much intelligence work involves an undramatic search of “open” sources, such as radio broadcasts and various publications. Among covert sources of intelligence are imagery intelli¬ gence, which includes aerial and space reconnaissance, signals intelli¬ gence, which includes electronic eavesdropping and code breaking, and human intelligence, which involves the secret agent working at the classic spy trade. Leading national intelligence organizations are the Central Intel¬ ligence Agency (CIA) in the U.S.; the Federal Security Service in Russia; MI5 and MI6 in Britain; and the Mossad in Israel.
intelligence quotient See IQ
intelligent design Argument intended to demonstrate that living organisms were created in more or less their present forms by an “intelli¬ gent designer.” Intelligent design was formulated in the 1990s, primarily in the United States, as an explicit refutation of the Darwinian theory of bio¬ logical evolution. Building on a version of the argument from design for the existence of God, proponents of intelligent design observed that the func¬ tional parts and systems of living organisms are “irreducibly complex” in the sense that none of their component parts can be removed without caus¬ ing the whole system to cease functioning. From this premise they inferred that no such system could have come about through the gradual alteration of functioning precursor systems by means of random mutation and natural selection, as the standard evolutionary account maintains; therefore, living organisms must have been created all at once by an intelligent designer. Proponents of intelligent design generally avoided identifying the designer with the God of Christianity or other monotheistic religions, in part because they wished the doctrine to be taught as a legitimate scientific alternative to evolution in public schools in the United States, where the government is constitutionally prohibited from promoting religion. Critics of intelligent design argued that it rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of natural selection, that it ignores the existence of precursor systems in the evolu¬ tionary history of numerous organisms, and that it is ultimately untestable and therefore not scientific. See also creationism.
intensive care unit or critical care unit Hospital facility for care of critically ill patients at a more intensive level than is needed by other patients. Staffed by specialized personnel, the intensive care unit contains a complex assortment of monitors and life-support equipment that can sustain life in once-fatal situations, including adult respiratory distress syn¬ drome, kidney failure, multiple organ failure, and sepsis (see septicemia).
intention In Scholastic logic and psychology, a concept used to describe a mode of being or relation between a mind and an object. In knowing, the mind is said to “intend” or “tend toward” its object, and a thing as
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intentionality ► intermediate goods I 947
known, or in the knowing mind, has “intentional being,” as with squar¬ ing the circle, which, though impossible, can be an object of intention. In action theory, intention is taken in a different but related sense, as in act¬ ing with the intention of accomplishing a specific purpose. An important question in action theory is that of the relation between having a specific intention in doing something and doing the same thing intentionally. Is an intention necessary for intentional action and, if so, is it a cause of such action or some other kind of ground of it?
intentionality Property of being directed toward an object. Intention¬ ality is exhibited in various mental phenomena. Thus, if a person expe¬ riences an emotion toward an object, he has an intentional attitude toward it. Other examples of intentional attitudes toward an object are, looking for, believing in, and thinking about. Intentional attitudes also include propositional attitudes. One characteristic of intentionality is “inexistence”: A person may be intentionally related to an object that does not exist. Thus, what a person looks for (and intentionally seeks) may not exist, and an event he believes to occur may not occur at all. Another characteristic is referential opacity: A sentence truly ascribing an intentional state to a person may become false when some alternative description of the object of that state is substituted for it. Suppose that his pen is the millionth pen produced this year, so that “his pen” and “the millionth pen produced this year” have the same reference. It may be true to say that he is in the inten¬ tional state of searching for his pen but false to say that he is in the inten¬ tional state of searching for the millionth pen produced this year; similarly, he may believe that this is his pen and yet not believe this is the millionth pen produced this year.
interaction, fundamental See fundamental interaction
interactionism In sociology, a theoretical perspective that derives social processes (such as conflict, cooperation, identity formation) from human interaction. It was Georg Simmel who first stated that “society is merely the name for a number of individuals connected by interaction.” In the U.S., John Dewey, Charles H. Cooley, and especially George Her¬ bert Mead developed symbolic interactionism, the theory that mind and self are not part of the innate human equipment but arise through social interaction—i.e., communication with others using symbols. For symbolic interactionists, the individual is always engaged in socialization or the modification of one’s mind, role, and behaviour through contact with oth¬ ers. Other theorists, such as Alfred Schutz, drew on phenomenology to extend interactionism, an effort that led to the creation of fields such as sociolinguistics and ethnomethodology, the study of people’s sense¬ making activities. See also Erving Goffman.
interactionism In philosophy of mind, a species of mind-body dualism that holds that mind and body, though separate and distinct substances, causally interact. Interactionists assert that a mental event (as when a per¬ son forms the intention to put his hand in a fire) can be the cause of a physical action. Conversely, the physical event (his hand coming into contact with the fire) can be the cause of a mental event (his feeling an intense pain). The classical formulation of interactionism is due to Rene Descartes, who could not satisfactorily explain how the interaction takes place, apart from the speculation that it occurs in the pineal gland. This problem led some philosophers to deny that mind and body really inter¬ act and to explain appearances to the contrary by appealing to divine intervention to create mental or physical effects for physical or mental causes (see occasionalism) or to a divinely ordained “preestablished har¬ mony” between the courses of mental and physical events. Benedict de Spinoza argued for a monistic theory on which mind and body were both attributes of a single underlying substance. See also dualism; mind-body PROBLEM.