Heterophenomenology: Heavy-handed sleight-of-hand Hubert Dreyfus & Sean D. Kelly Published online: 19 January 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2007 Abstract We argue that heterophenomenology both over- and under-populates the intentional realm. For example, when one is involved in coping, one’ s mind does not contain beliefs. Since the heterophenomenologist interprets all intentional commit- ment as belief, he necessarily overgenerates the belief contents of the mind. Since beliefs cannot capture the normative aspect of coping and perceiving, any method, such as heterophenomenology, that allows for only beliefs is guaranteed not only to overgenerate beliefs but also to undergenerate other kinds of intentional phenomena. Key words heterophenomenology . coping skills . belief . intentionality Phenomenology faces problems concerning the content and legitimacy of its introspective reports. It would be much appreciated if Daniel Dennett’ s hetero- phenomenology could avoid them, but, while it avoids the problem of the status of introspective evidence, it turns out heterophenomenology both over and under populates the intentional realm. Husserl originally thought of phenomenology as a descriptive science of the content of everyday consciousness based on a special method of reflection. However, the very idea that phenomenological description makes available what was already implicit in everyday experience begs the question of just how much the reflective stance transforms what it allegedly articulates. Later Husserl (1960) came to realize that things are experienced differently when I am involved with them than when I reflectively bracket their existence and report my beliefs about them. He acknowledges that “therewith, to be sure, an essentially Phenom Cogn Sci (2007) 6:45–55 DOI 10.1007/s11097-006-9042-y H. Dreyfus (*) Department of Philosophy, University of California, 314 Moses Hall #2390, Berkeley, CA 94720-2390, USA e-mail: dreyfus@cogsci.berkeley.edu S. D. Kelly Department of Philosophy, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA