Intentioner

Intentioner is a term found in some scholarly and technical writings to refer to an entity that forms, holds, or acts on an intention. It is not widely standardized and is not commonly listed in major dictionaries; its precise sense varies by field. In general, an intentioner is the locus of intentionality within a system—human, organizational, or artificial—distinguishing the mental act of intending from the physical action that follows.

In philosophy of action, the intentioner can be described as the agent whose mental state—an intention or goal—guides subsequent behavior. In this use, the term helps separate the source of the goal from the execution of the goal. In cognitive science and artificial intelligence, intentioner often denotes the component or module that generates, selects, or commits to goals, such as a planner or goal-setting mechanism. In human-computer interaction, intention recognition systems infer the user’s intended action; such systems may be described as supporting an intentioner’s role in guiding interface behavior.

Etymology and related terms: intentioner comes from intention + -er, a productive agent suffix. It is related to terms such as “intention” and “intender” (one who intends), but is used to denote the active locus of intentionality rather than the act of intending per se.

Criticism and status: The lack of standard definition has led some scholars to emphasize more precise language, preferring terms such as agent, planner, or goal-forming process. When used, the term is typically clarified within the surrounding discussion.