[Borodog]

I find this sort of philosophical hand-wringing not very useful. You can call intent an "illusion" if you like, but it certainly objectively exists in some sense. You could certainly use "intent" in the sense that water intends to run down hill; I defy you to show that it doesn't. It demonstrates that it does. The reason that we don't do this is that it isn't a very useful way to think about the actions of water. It is, however, extremely useful to frame the study of human action in terms of intent. People act purposefully in specific ways utilizing specific means because they intend (whatever that entails) for certain outcomes to result, for certain ends to be reached. They could intend for different outcomes or ends to be reached, and then they would act in different ways. Getting all philosophically exercised about intent being an "illusion" only serves to obscure that human beings actually do have goals they are trying to reach, wants they are trying to satisfy. Whether these goals are chosen analogously to the way water "chooses" to flow downhill does not matter in the least.