Abstract
Representationalism maintains that the phenomenal character of an experience is fully determined by its intentional content. Representationalism is a very
attractive theory in the project of naturalizing consciousness, on the assumption that
the relation of representation can itself be naturalized. For this purpose, representationalists with naturalistic inclinations typically appeal to teleological theories of
mental content.
Not much attention has been paid, however, to the interaction between representationalism and teleological theories of content. This paper will provide reasons to
think that such an interaction is not felicitous. In particular, I will argue that those
who endorse the conjunction of these two theories are committed to the existence of
impossible experiences