Tutorial #3. Functionalism. In a Nutshell

In Nutshell

see also: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/functionalism/

Functionalism is the view that the mind is the “functional organization” of the brain, or any other system that is functionally equivalent to the brain.

Another formulation of functionalism is that what makes something a thought, desire, pain (or any other type of mental state) depends not on its internal constitution, but solely on its function, or the role it plays, in the cognitive system of which it is a part.

More precisely, functionalist theories take the identity of a mental state to be determined by its causal relations to sensory stimulations, other mental states, and behavior.

Example, a functionalist theory might characterize as a state that tends to be caused by bodily injury, to produce the belief that something is wrong with the body and the desire to be out of that state, to produce anxiety, and, in the absence of any stronger, conflicting desires, to cause wincing or moaning. According to this theory, all and only creatures with internal states that meet these conditions, or play these roles, are capable of being in pain.

Hilary Putnam’s main example of a description of functional organization is the machine table of a Turing Machine

On this view, functionalists about the mind thinks that all there is to being intelligent, having thoughts and other mental states, is implementing some very complicated program. In a slogan, our brain is the hardware and our minds are the software. In us, this software is implemented by a human brain, but it could also be implemented on other hardware, like a Martian brain or a digital computer.