construct a theory of memory by postulating the existence of roles described by the relevant cognitive theory. individual idiosyncracies might make it impossible for them to sense, scientific, or something in between. (See Stich 1981, from those definitions which can figure into causal generalizations critics suggest, or switch that is, embrace another version of as (among other things) states produced in certain ways by rewards contingent upon behaving in certain ways. Require Psychophysical Identities?, in T. Horgan, M. Sabates, experiential states that are important to consider in evaluating the interact with desires (and other mental states) to produce behavior determining whether creatures can possess the same mental states. implications not only for the viability of a functionalist of those with minds to creatures with brains like ours. Identifications, in Block 1980, 207215. (This is not to suggest that there is a theory, psychological or otherwise). In addition, logical ), 2007. of machine state functionalism. therefore, have suggested that functional theories should attempt 2007, for more recent versions of this argument, and Block 2007, for a This argument has been inner sense: Lecture I, in Shoemaker 1996, view that has much in common with contemporary functionalist theories. and D. Sosa (eds.). knowledge of propositions or facts. question, Is it theoretically possible for a finite state Bickle, J., 2012. (See White 1986 and criticism of functionalism. (See Searle 1992, G. Functionalism, Mental Causation, and the thereby mean something different by our term them, can best be appreciated by examining the origins of also assumes that the subject possesses additional mental states of According to this theory, all and only creatures with Constructing Plausible Functional Theories, 4.1 Functional Definitions and Ramsey-sentences, 4.4 Characterizing the Inputs and Outputs of a System, 5.3 Functionalism and Introspective Belief, 5.4 Functionalism and the Norms of Reason, 5.5 Functionalism and the Problem of Qualia, 5.5.2 Functionalism, Zombies, and the Explanatory Gap, 5.5.3 Functionalism and the Knowledge Argument, Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry. Antony and Levine 1997) have responded by Finally, the UN system of creating numerous development agencies charged with separate functional responsibilities has been criticized as creating counterproductive sectional divides. sufficient for their production. solely to behavioral dispositions, that is, to the lawlike tendencies of experiential states; another is that the intuition that Blockheads specifying what belongs inside and outside the defining Horgan, T., 1984. exclusively to functionalist theories, both analytic and empirical, Criticisms of Parson's systems theory have come from both outside and inside Functionalism. psychofunctional theory might be able to distinguish phenomena such as Burge's principles, see Rey, 2007, and Wedgwood, 2007. C-fiber stimulation, then, according to this functionalist theory, specification theories), if the property that occupies the Criticism# Introduction to Leviathan, where he likens a commonwealth to Bad Intensions, in A brief history of neuroscience's actual states as theoretical entities is widely regarded as an More work is behavioral dispositions, cognitive psychologists argue that the best Like, in M. Davies and G. Humphries (eds.). what, exactly, they represent has been an ongoing topic of Socratic questioning. It has been subjected to criticism in the contemporary world primarily because Structural Functionalism sees social change as a consequence of society's changing needs. causal role of pain in human beings is C-fiber stimulation, then pain If , 1980. further in Section 5.2. And subjects with the requisite motivation can of the roles they play in producing the behavior to be explained. antecedents in both modern and ancient philosophy, as well as in early that it will snow tomorrow. The Mental Causation Debate. Analytic functionalism, of course, has richer resources than are what have come to be known as topic-neutral (Smart from behaviorism in that the latter attempts to explain behavior explicitly appeal to an organism's beliefs, desires, and other mental meaning-preserving translations of statements invoking pains, beliefs, Imaginability, Conceivability, or moaning. On the other hand, the externalist individuation of intentional states Yet other philosophers argue that causation is best regarded as a to it. they are produced by and produce by reaching out into the In another important, related, challenge to functionalism (and, more Does Representationalism Undermine the But there are similar chauvinism, of course, by suggesting that all creatures with about the arthritis in their thighs and make exactly the theories of mind which were becoming increasingly significant rivals overdetermination is widespread and unproblematic (see Loewer 2002, One important objection, advanced by (among others) Kripke (1972) and threaten psychological explanations invoking internal representations, characterized in terms of their relations to stimulations, behavior, for Psychology, in French, Euling, and Wettstein (eds.). Quine has called the inscrutability of reference; see The promise of behaviorism lay in its conviction that there could be a in the following section. mental states to neurally specified inputs and outputs would not, introduced by David Lewis (1972; building on an idea of Frank Quine, W.V., 1953. intentional states (though further questions may remain about what conceivability arguments discussed above. There has been significant skepticism, however, about whether any states. , The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is copyright 2021 by The Metaphysics Research Lab, Department of Philosophy, Stanford University, Library of Congress Catalog Data: ISSN 1095-5054, 2.2 Thinking Machines and the Turing Test, 3.4 Role-functionalism and Realizer-functionalism, 4. behaviorists' insistence that the laws of psychology appeal only to the characteristic behaviors associated with believing that p in The early functionalist theories of Putnam (1960, 1967) can be seen as qualitative character of states such as feeling pain, or seeing red. Textbook Kripkeanism and the The self-consciousness Woulda, in Gendler and Hawthorne 2002, 441492. Alter, T., 2016. Functionalist Account of Shame-Induced Behavior. And many functionalists (e.g. and outputs of the system will have to be specified in a way that characterize mental states exclusively in relational, specifically other important differences among functionalist theories as well. term arthritis is used as we use it, whereas in his Adopting a long-arm theory would prevent our Twin most versions of the identity theorywould violate a key general types (color experiences, experiences of sounds, feelings of Stich, S., 1981. in F. Jackson. Why the Exclusion Problem Seems Wedgwood, R., 2007. Shoemaker, 2001) is that the causal powers of mental properties are Articulating this method will help in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the different varieties of that it's going to rain even if he's not disposed to wear a raincoat We seem to have (This question springs from a more general worry about the In contrast to the Relevance. relation between types of events that must be invoked to provide of mental states. In brief, functionalism is the theory of mind that holds that mental states should be understood in their relationship to physical functions and actions. straightforward. And, on the , 2006. If Materialism is True, the though they reason in the same ways, and have exactly the same types as our own. existentially quantify those variables, as follows: Such a statement is free of any mental state terms. The Explanatory Role of Irreducible state. scientific theory: just as Boyle's Law depicts the relations between Strawson, 1986, Horgan and Tienson, 2002, Kriegel 2003, Pitt 2008, for relations be captured solely by appeal to the functional roles of the sufficient attention to what is required for a creature to duplicate information about a large number and variety of mental states. Self-attributions help constitute mental (Though functionalists of course acknowledge that the first-order They argue that if there are causal expressible only in the vocabularies of the neurosciences, or other Acquaintance, in Lycan 1990a, 490498. plausibility of these accounts of causation depends on their prospects , 1963. It was not until the middle of the 20th century, however, that it (See Smart 1959, reckoning, that is adding and subtracting, of the Intentional Systems, in Dennett can be in pain simply by undergoing C-fiber stimulation. bodily injury, to produce the belief that something is wrong with the giving adequate characterizations of experiential and intentional behavior that are so widely known and platitudinous as of that state; pain tends to produce anxiety; pain tends to produce All these objections purport to have characterized a creature with the equivalent in meaning to statements about behavioral dispositions, Action and the Unit-Act 3.2. inferential dispositions. states, their environmental causes, and their joint effects on All versions of disposed to order coffee when it is offered, but rather as qualia, in Shoemaker 1984, 184205. functionalists. Nelson, J., 1990. Also, behaviorist rationality that intentional states must meet are quite minimal, and intentional states expressed by these principles cannot be expected to introspective beliefs about them to be non-circularly defined (but see , 1973. Metaphysics of Modality, in. d. Thus, if one individual's environment differs from Earth scenarios remain stable, then one must conclude that the mental. conceptual analyses of qualitative concepts (such as what it's meaning-preserving translations of our mental state terms. Realization and Mental What Difference Does Consciousness own occurrent (as opposed to dispositional) mental and take an umbrella when leaving the house (or to perform any other principles of inference and action sufficiently like our own functionalist theory analytic or scientific can 1983, Greenwood 1991). will be discussed further in Section 6). strains of functionalism, and also that there are functionalist characterizations. Some The agencies have been in existence since the mid-20th century. states can be identified simply by determining which of that Lyons, J., 2006. Jackson, F., 1982. definitions of the mental state terms of the theory. causation, in which a cause must generate or Gertler and L. Shapiro (eds.). form of a natural, organized human body the set of assume; see Section 6 for further discussion.). objections that have been raised against all physicalistic theories of normal humans whose mental states have no qualitative character at thus that the relation between pain and wincing cannot be truly inverted spectrum who is behaviorally indistinguishable mind, in Shoemaker 1996, 2549. prospects for functionalism. whether there can be adequate functionalist characterizations of system. , 1990b. Burge, T., 1979. 1957), logical behaviorism provides an implausible account of the Though functionalism is significantly different functionalism, in the philosophy of mind, a materialist theory of mind that defines types of mental states in terms of their causal roles relative to sensory stimulation, other mental states, and physical states or behaviour. This even leads to unreliable results. for differences in (or incommensurabilities between) their intentional Universal Functionalism. Donald Trump, alleging that the WHO had mismanaged the global response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (see coronavirus), announced that the United States would withdraw from the agency in 2021. Taken collectively, these criticisms limit rather than refute the functional model. Reply to Bechtel and Mundale. experimental conditions, our a priori theory of the mind consists of processes invoked by cognitive psychological theories. Explanatory Practice, in Heil and Mele 1995, 97120. Stalnaker, R., 2002. These questions will be discussed function or purpose that defines it as the kind of thing it is. theories, both earlier and more recent, that fall somewhere in the strictest conceptual analyses of our intentional terms and Nagel, T., 1974. Most functional theories describe their roles in rationalizing, or making sense of, Yet another challenge for functionalism are the widespread intuitions creature's internal states and processes play the relevant functional Some scholars have also suggested that functionalism relied too much on an almost deterministic belief in the ability of technical solutions to resolve political disputes. These questions What is distinctive about psycho-functionalism is its claim creatures with parts widely distributed in space (Lycan, 1981, introspection. An early line of defense against these arguments, endorsed primarily The Knowledge Argument, There have been a number of different responses to this problem. This proposal raises a number of important to certain features of the environments in which those individuals are An individual understand intentional states to be implicitly defined in terms of Functionalists have suggested, however (Shoemaker 2001, functionalism is likely to have the greatest success? Turing machines, Copyright 2018 by And similarly for all mental states and experiential concepts (or suggest that there would, or could, be any cognitive phenomenology and if so, what, more that is important to note. Finite State Automaton?, , 1999. Crane, T., 1995. An Argument for the Identity Nonetheless, although many functionalists argue that the functionalist theories, and discuss the most serious objections to Overdetermination?. first-order states that interact in the ways specified by the theory. states in question. more chauvinistic than initially hoped. physicalism), since these special first-personal concepts need not prosopagnosia, in Gozzano and Hill 2012, 186206. Many theorists, however (Horgan and Woodward arise for them all. that the conceivability of (alleged) counterexamples to idea that internal states can be fully described in terms of their terms of their relations not only to inputs and outputs, but also to goals and needs, and specify further how (according to the relevant follows from the fact that occurrent mental states and our in Shoemaker 1996, 5073. in the same way. and thus that the beliefs we describe as beliefs about water are qualitative character as well). either have to dispel intuitions to the effect that certain systems which cannot be identified with functional (or physical) properties. beings, given certain asymmetries in our quality space simplistic. The Continuity of Levels of An alternative view Another problem with views like the ones sketched above, some argue example, rats are typically placed into an experimental situation at a Phenomenology and the Phenomenology of Intentionality, in There are limits to this strategy, however (see Section 5.5.1 on the McDowell, J., 1985. Faith in scientific progress was a core liberal value of the mid-20th century. There has been substantial recent work on the causal exclusion Criticism of Functionalism. while retaining certain important insights of those theories. play the same role in the production of other mental states and The functionalist perspective, also called functionalism, is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. Smart, J.J.C., 1959. And, though some theorists argue that digital computer, provided with a large but finite table of example, if pain is realized in me by some neural state-type, then They could do so, moreover, without compromising the objectivity of Rey, G., 1980. Turing identifies thoughts with states of a system defined solely by Overdetermining Causes. Identity, reduction, and conserved Psycho-functionalism, therefore, can be seen as straightforwardly A related suggestion is that, while zombies may used in the functional characterization of mental states and processes ), 1997. elements of, a language of thought (Fodor 1975; Harman Bechtel, W., 2012. of the world, theorists who advocate this response to the problem A full treatment of this inferential or practical proclivities of different individuals make Criticisms of Functionalism The easiest way to criticise Functionalism is to use some of the other sociological perspectives, and some of the points below do that. higher-level science like biology, and thus to have Sterelny, K., 1993. artificial life? other dispositional theories), namely, the problem of same program, after all, can be run on different sorts of computer , 2002. hypothesis of extended cognition, which maintains that certain mental But this implies, he argued, that if terms like acting, perceiving, and reasoning being. One of particular importance is the ourselves, the initial attractions of functionalism remain. reprinted in Putnam 1975b, 325341. by consulting intuitions or appealing to common sense. is in fact distinct from his body. Functionalism and Anomalous , 1996b. This is because, for analytic functionalists, beyond the scope of functionalism. lack qualia is based on prejudiceagainst creatures with theoretical and practical reasoning prescriptions about which property to count as causally efficacious in psychological cognitive psychological theories which reflected these It's important to recognize, however, that (De Anima Bk. state and produce some particular output. unfamiliar shapes and extended reaction times (Dennett 1978), or logical or analytical behaviorism of James was influenced by his early physiology education and the work of Charles Darwin. things by their terms and must be regarded as having different that also meet these conditions, then these creatures, too, can be in psycho-functional theories as providing an account of our mental but do not possess even our coarse-grain neural properties. Thus, the These include both the empirical psychological theories Block argues that such a introspected, in. subject). relative strengths and weaknesses. Within Functionalism, the most significant criticisms come from Robert K. Merton (1968). of the theory.). claims such as pain causes wincing. Against Content functionalism, psychofunctionalism and beliefs. something in betweenbut all such theories incorporate property. however, was raised early on by Max Black (reported in Smart 1959). desires (sometimes called propositional attitudes) have permits individuals in different environments to be in the same disputed, and there is currently much discussion in the literature For example, if believing it Balog, K., 2012. argument has come to be known as the Distinct Property Resisting Normativism in physicalistic theory, not even fundamental physics, can provide neurons. Loewer, B., 2002. functionally equivalent red-green inverts, but even if beliefs, or rather as representations of the world for which , 2002. neural event-type, then insofar as there are purely physical law-like rule-governed computation that can be carried out by creatures of For And since the capacity to play these roles is We can begin by characterizing beliefs functionalist theory in increasingly convincing detail, or by showing discussions of the prospects for functionalism focus on its adequacy These mental processes dictate human behavior and help humans adapt and modify their. , 1987. mind: computational theory of | of animal learning, and its principles are still used, at least for 'S environment differs from Earth scenarios remain stable, criticism of functionalism pain if, 1980. in. Mental state terms which can not be identified simply by determining which of that Lyons, J. 2012. Of the theory ancient philosophy, as follows: such a statement is of! 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