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May 3, 2001
Functionalism
Two Camps
Dualist Materialist
Mind is formal and abstract Mind is the wet and slimy stuff in
Substance two radically different kinds our heads
of substances in the universe: material
objects and immaterial minds (Descartes) Behaviorism mind reduces
Property - two radically different kinds behavior or dispositions to behavior
of properties in the universe: material
properties (like weight) and immaterial Physicalism mental states are
properties (like pain) brain states
Functionalism mental states are
defined by causal relations
Strong AI minds are programs
implemented in computers
To discover the need that a structure functions to meet does not necessarily reveal its cause -
the sequence of events that created the structure in the first place. To assume it does puts
the cart before the horse. (Turner 17)
Functionalism looks nice on paper to those who know nothing about how
brains work. (Freeman 115).
Functionalism is merely the last gasp of classical psychology. (Bergmann 678)
The functionalist strategem is a smoke screen for the preservation of error
and confusion It needs to be revealed for the shortsighted and
reactionary position it is. (MBC, Churchland 506-7)
If you are tempted to functionalism, I believe you do not need refutation,
you need help. (Searle, TRM, 9)
Whats wrong with Functionalism?
ABSURDITIES CAN BE DEFENDED for example, alchemy, in
the face of elemental chemistry, can be defended using the
functionalist stratagem, thusly:
Ensouled in mercury or sulphur is an abstract functional state. Mercury, for
example, actually refers to the disposition to reflect light,to liquefy under heat, to unite
with other matter, etc. (these are functional kinds). It is the total syndrome of occurent and
causal properties of a metal or substance that matters, not the corpuscularian details of
the substrate (function matters, not the implementation). Alchemy, it is concluded,
comprehends a level of organization in reality that is distinct from, and irreducible to,
the organization found at the level of corpuscularian chemistry. (MBC Churchland 507).
Elliot Sober: Functionalism got off on the wrong foot. The problem is
that function is ambiguous (97)
New Paradigm or Paradigm Shift?
John Searle: Most of the recently fashioned materialist concepts of the mind such as
behaviorism, functionalism and physicalism end up denying that there are any such things as
minds as we ordinarily think of them Now, why do they do that? (MBS 15). (We need to
stop using) the antique and obsolete vocabulary of mental and physical, mind and body
(MLS 47). Any satisfactory account of the mind must take into account: consciousness,