intentional stance

is a predictive strategy of interpretation that presupposes the rationality of the people-or other entities-that we are hoping to understand and predict.

TIS is 'a predictive strategy of interpretation that presupposes the rationality of the people-or other entities-that we are hoping to understand and predict' (back cover of the eponymous book, MIT Press). TIS is but the highest level of three that Dennett describes in his so-called heuristic taxonomy... the second level is the 'design stance', while the lowest is the 'physical stance'.

intentional stance, n.All

intentional stance