This paper relates intentionality, a central feature of human consciousness, with brain functions
controlling adaptive action. Mental intentionality, understood as the “aboutness” of mental
states, includes two modalities: semantic intentionality, the attribution of meaning to mental
states, and projective intentionality, the projection of conscious content into the world. We
claim that both modalities are the evolutionary product of self-organized action, and discuss
examples of animal behavior that illustrate some stages of this evolution. The adaptive
advantages of self-organized action impacted on brain organization, leading to the formation of
mammalian brain circuits that incorporate semantic intentionality in their modus operandi.
Following the same line of reasoning, we suggest that projective intentionality could be
explained as a result of habituation processes referenced to the dynamical interface of the body
with the environment.‡¶g