Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Animal trails ought to be investigated as an archetypal Intentional phenomenon. A trail is Intentional in that it has significance beyond its immediate physical properties, and because the use of trails involves characteristic Intentional states: an animal must in some sense be seeking a destination, the animal must be able to determine which trail it ought to take, must be able to follow it, and must feel some urgency about staying on the trail. Trails evolved along with the abilities to use them. Thus trails and trail-use are not just good exemplars of Intentionality: trails are an archetypal form of Intentionality. It is likely that in some animals there are special brain mechanisms for interacting with trails, and these mechanisms, devoted as they are to an Intentional phenomenon, can shed light on the brain's implementation of other cispects of Intentionality. To understand the phenomenon of Intentionally we must look at as many exemplars as we can. Trails are especially worthy of study because they are external to individual animals, they are socially constructed and historically contingent, and their Intentionality subserves activity.