Functionalism Flashcards
What is functionalism?
Psychological/mental concepts (desire, belief, pain) are functional concepts
Functional concepts = information about what something does (identify something in terms of its function)
The concept pain identifies pains in terms of what pain does (in terms of the function performed by pain)
Pain is the state that has the function of detecting bodily damages and giving rise to an appropriate set of responses
Anything that performs the function of X is a state of X no matter the physical compositions
Can be a functionalist and a cartesian dualist but not a functionalist and an identity theorist
Multiple realisability
Not a problem for functionalism
Pain can be realised in various different ways (screaming, running away)
Cow pain and human pain may be realised in different physical states but they still perform the same function and therefore it doesn’t matter that they are realised in different ways
Something could have no brain and be made of cheese but if they perform the same function as us then they would have a mind
Has an advantage over identity theory
Mental states as causal intermediaries
MS are functional states
To perform a function is to pay a certain causal role (serves as a causal intermediary) between inputs and outputs
Burnt hand > Pain > Crying
Pain is the state that is typically caused by tissue damage, trauma and that typically causes cries, etc
Mental states are individuated in terms of their causal roles
