Is intentional consciousness always to be understood as being directed towards a determinate object? The aim of this research project is to pursue this question and to investigate whether there are forms of intentionality not directed at determinate objects. For it is questionable whether phenomena such as attempts, curiosity, and moods as well as other emotional experiences can be understood exhaustively against the background of the concept of object-directed intentionality. Husserl’s concept of tendency, as it is elaborated in the recently published Studien zur Struktur des Bewusstseins, offers an important conceptual tool in order to understand the structure of non-objectual intentionality and their role in making the formation of determinate objectual directedness possible. The research project is a contribution to the investigation of the phenomenological structure of 'tendency' and its relevance for the understanding of intentionality, not only within phenomenology, but more generally in the philosophy of mind.

Research questions include:

• Can the reassessment of intentionality as tendency offer a more encompassing view on both the genesis and the structure of object-directed intentionality?
• What is the role of the relation between affection and tendency in the shaping of object-oriented intentionality?
• To what extent is tendency a unifying or encompassing structure that connects the different classes of intentional acts, such as cognitive, emotional and volitional acts?
• How do the notions of affect and tendency may reframe the discussion on intentional directedness in contemporary philosophy of mind?
• What is the phenomenological structure of emotional intentionality?