Functionalism Philosophy Of Mind Essay

Functionalism in philosophy of mind is a theory about the nature of mental states, by which they are characterized by their functional roles. According to functionalism, mental states are given in terms of their computational or causal relations to perceptual input, other mental states, and behavioral output. For example, when we experience pain, not only do we experience the sensation but we create belief in it, the desire for it to stop, distress and distraction in the form of favoring or withdrawal. Therefore, functionalism asserts that for a person to be in a specific mental state is for them to be in an inner state that has the functional role characteristic of that state. Functionalism was developed from the idea of the mind as a computer, and in

Functionalists also believe that mental states are “multiply realizable” in that states of one and the same type—pain, belief, desire—may differ on a neurophysiological level across living things and in some instances, may not even need to be organic, but could consist in an mechanical state. The important thing is only that the defining casual role is being played, not what structure or materials play. This idea implies that creatures with radically different biological systems may host some the same kinds of mental states as humans. A nematode at the bottom of the ocean could hope for world peace and wonder if there if life above water, even if its brain were biologically and chemically unlike our own. At the start, Sober mentions Turing’s machine functionalism, pointing out the way Turing defines functionalism is in need of a fundamental change, in favor of teleological functionalism. Turing’s functionalism focuses on the mathematical function, for example, one plus one equals two is a computational function, whereas the teleological concept of function, sees the function of the heart to pump