CHURCHLAND 3: FUNCTIONALISM (317-321)

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CHURCHLAND 3 FUNCTIONALISM (317-321)

• FUNCTIONALISM
• MIND
• INFORMATION PROCESSING

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FUNCTIONALISM

• 1 Metaphysical basis of
• Cognitive Science
• 2 Functional objects/concepts
• chair, heart, wing, Beethovens 5th
• 3 Main metaphor (from computing)
• mind/brain software/hardware
• translation mind relates to brain
• as software relates to hardware

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Heir to Behaviorism(p. 317,see pp. 309-11 for
behaviorism)

• Behaviorism
• 1) Stimulus? 2) Response
• Functionalism
• 1) environmental effects stimulus
• 2)other mental states ?
• 3) bodily behavior

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2. Functional Isomorphism (pp317-18)

• Functionalism accommodates
• Multiple Instantiation
• Animal, alien (or computer) made of different
  substance than we are could have same mental
  state/s as us, if s/he (it) has state/s with same
  function.
• Think of chairs/stoves/etc. made of very
  different materials with different designs.

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3. Essence of mental (p. 318 top left)

• What makes a mind a mind is
• its functionnot its substance.
• Core idea
• each type of
• mental state/process/ability/etc.
• is some sort of
• information state/process/ability/etc.

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4. Token Identity Materialism (p. 318)

• type/token kind/instance
• Type identities H2O water
• mind brain
• consciousness brain process
• Token identities that chair steel structure
• this mind this brain
• that mind that computer
• this pain this brain process
• that pain that hydraulic process

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5. Methodological Autonomy (p. 318)

• Just as Software Engineering
• (design and construction of software)
• is distinct from Computer Engineering
• (design and construction of computer)
• So too
• Psychology (study of brain function)
• is distinct (hence autonomous) from
• Neuroscience (study of brain biology, chemistry,
  physics, etc.)

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Arguments against Functionalism

• 1. Inverted Qualia Argument (318-19)
• Qualia qualities of consciousness
• Red may look to me like green looks to you, etc.,
  though we both call red red (are functionally
  identical).
• Different qualia may have same function, so
  functionalism is incomplete it does not tell us
  what each others experience is like.

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Arguments against Functionalism

• 2. Absent Qualia Argument (319-20)
• If we built a robot that was functionally like a
  human, how do we know it has any qualia at all?
• Suppose, for instance, the robot was controlled
  by a building full of experts via a radio
  linkare we really to think that somehow the
  robot ( experts) actually has (have)
  consciousness?
• ZOMBIES

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Arguments against Functionalism

• 3. Species Specific Identities (320-21).
• Temperature is a single property that is
  instantiated differently in a solid, a liquid, a
  gas, or a vacuum. BUT there are still type
  identities
• e.g, temp in a gas
• mean kinetic molecular energy
• By Analogy perhaps
• Consciousness in a human brain process