Shared Intentionality: Phenomenological Conception and Consequences in Terms of Waldorf Pedagogy

Abstract

Shared intentionality is well-known as a key aspect of social relation-building. Anthropological studies show that human infants begin early to establish social relations via shared intentionality, which is not topically restricted to the satisfaction of basic needs. Contrary to the widespread opinion that little children have to abstract meaning structures from incoherent sense data they are initially confronted with, in Waldorf education the early co-intentional skill is reasoned by a holistic state of consciousness of the child. Thus, it could not be a lack of common meaning structures which characterizes the mental state of children, but rather the intention to individualize adequate meanings at experienced breaking points occurring in the holistic state in order to explore the world and building social relations. Based on this in view, several psychological and philosophical models are examined in order to attain a sound conceptualization of shared intentionality. Furthermore, in children the required cognitive activity seems to stand in direct competition with the vital resources which let grow and flourish the body. That implies, as a pedagogical challenge, to not evoke intellectual skills too early but to invent adequate metamorphoses of meaning structures in communication and interaction with children in order to take their holistic mindset into account and to promote their healthy development.