How do physicalists explain 'intentional content'?
Yes, we want physicalism to provide an explanation of qualia, but why don't we demand explanations from the other metaphysical positions?
Oh I accept that other metaphysical positions have problems with it also, I'm just really interested in physicalism here and how it overcomes it haha. I'm not trying to be biased!
According to physics, a computer can do everything a human can - i.e. it can have identical intentional or other mental states. We simply don't know how to program them yet!
But I can't help but feel while this computer could
seemingly do such a thing, it would not actually be acting in the same way (e.g. a computer could not imagine a blue circle).
As for animals, I'm not certain - I've never really consciously thought about it. I would think
some higher-level species would be capable of intentionality, yes.