Functionalism (philosophy of mind)

Functionalism (philosophy of mind)

Functionalism is a theory of the mind in contemporary philosophy, developed largely as an alternative to both the
identity theory of mind and behaviourism. Its core idea is that mental states (beliefs, desires, being in pain, etc.) are
constituted solely by their functional role that is, they are causal relations to other mental states, sensory inputs,
and behavioral outputs.[1] Functionalism is a theoretical level between the physical implementation and behavioural
output.[2] Therefore, it is different from its predecessors of Cartesian dualism (advocating independent mental and
physical substances) and Skinnerian behaviourism and physicalism (declaring only physical substances) because it is
only concerned with the effective functions of the brain, through its organization or its software programs.
Since mental states are identified by a functional role, they are said to be realized on multiple levels; in other words,
they are able to be manifested in various systems, even perhaps computers, so long as the system performs the
appropriate functions. While computers are physical devices with electronic substrate that perform computations on
inputs to give outputs, so brains are physical devices with neural substrate that perform computations on inputs
which produce behaviours.
While functionalism has its advantages, there have been several arguments against it, claiming that it is an
insufficient account of the mind.

Multiple realizability
An important part of some accounts of functionalism is the idea of multiple realizability. Since, according to
standard functionalist theories, mental states are the corresponding functional role, mental states can be sufficiently
explained without taking into account the underlying physical medium (e.g. the brain, neurons, etc.) that realizes
such states; one need only take into account the higher-level functions in the cognitive system. Since mental states
are not limited to a particular medium, they can be realized in multiple ways, including, theoretically, within
non-biological systems, such as computers. In other words, a silicon-based machine could, in principle, have the
same sort of mental life that a human being has, provided that its cognitive system realized the proper functional
roles. Thus, mental states are individuated much like a valve; a valve can be made of plastic or metal or whatever
material, as long as it performs the proper function (say, controlling the flow of liquid through a tube by blocking
and unblocking its pathway).
However, there have been some functionalist theories that combine with the identity theory of mind, which deny
multiple realizability. Such Functional Specification Theories (FSTs) (Levin, 3.4), as they are called, were most
notably developed by David Lewis[3] and David Malet Armstrong.[4] According to FSTs, mental states are the
particular "realizers" of the functional role, not the functional role itself. The mental state of belief, for example, just
is whatever brain or neurological process that realizes the appropriate belief function. Thus, unlike standard versions
of functionalism (often called Functional State Identity Theories), FSTs do not allow for the multiple realizability of
mental states, because the fact that mental states are realized by brain states is essential. What often drives this view
is the belief that if we were to encounter an alien race with a cognitive system composed of significantly different
material from humans' (e.g., silicon-based) but performed the same functions as human mental states (e.g., they tend
to yell "Yowzas!" when poked with sharp objects, etc.) then we would say that their type of mental state is perhaps
similar to ours, but too different to say it's the same. For some, this may be a disadvantage to FSTs. Indeed, one of
Hilary Putnam's[5][6] arguments for his version of functionalism relied on the intuition that such alien creatures
would have the same mental states as humans do, and that the multiple realizability of standard functionalism makes
it a better theory of mind.

Functionalism (philosophy of mind)

Types of functionalism
Machine-state functionalism
The broad position of "functionalism" can be articulated in many
different varieties. The first formulation of a functionalist theory of
mind was put forth by Hilary Putnam.[5][6] This formulation, which is
now called machine-state functionalism, or just machine
functionalism, was inspired by the analogies which Putnam and others
noted between the mind and the theoretical "machines" or computers
capable of computing any given algorithm which were developed by
Alan Turing (called Universal Turing machines).

Artistic representation of a Turing machine.

In non-technical terms, a Turing machine can be visualized as an indefinitely and infinitely long tape divided into
rectangles (the memory) with a box-shaped scanning device that sits over and scans one component of the memory
at a time. Each unit is either blank (B) or has a 1 written on it. These are the inputs to the machine. The possible
outputs are:
Halt: Do nothing.

R: move one square to the right.

L: move one square to the left.
B: erase whatever is on the square.
1: erase whatever is on the square and print a '1.

An extremely simple example of a Turing machine which writes out the sequence '111' after scanning three blank
squares and then stops is specified by the following machine table:
State One

State Two

State Three

B write 1; stay in state 1 write 1; stay in state 2 write 1; stay in state 3

1 go right; go to state 2

go right; go to state 3

[halt]

This table states that if the machine is in state one and scans a blank square (B), it will print a 1 and remain in state
one. If it is in state one and reads a 1, it will move one square to the right and also go into state two. If it is in state
two and reads a B, it will print a 1 and stay in state two. If it is in state two and reads a 1, it will move one square to
the right and go into state three. If it is in state three and reads a B, it prints a 1 and remains in state three. Finally, if
it is in state three and reads a 1, then it will stay in state three.
The essential point to consider here is the nature of the states of the Turing machine. Each state can be defined
exclusively in terms of its relations to the other states as well as inputs and outputs. State one, for example, is simply
the state in which the machine, if it reads a B, writes a 1 and stays in that state, and in which, if it reads a 1, it moves
one square to the right and goes into a different state. This is the functional definition of state one; it is its causal role
in the overall system. The details of how it accomplishes what it accomplishes and of its material constitution are
completely irrelevant.
According to machine-state functionalism, the nature of a mental state is just like the nature of the automaton states
described above. Just as state one simply is the state in which, given an input B, such and such happens, so being in
pain is the state which disposes one to cry "ouch", become distracted, wonder what the cause is, and so forth.

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Psychofunctionalism
A second form of functionalism is based on the rejection of behaviourist theories in psychology and their
replacement with empirical cognitive models of the mind. This view is most closely associated with Jerry Fodor and
Zenon Pylyshyn and has been labeled psychofunctionalism.
The fundamental idea of psychofunctionalism is that psychology is an irreducibly complex science and that the terms
that we use to describe the entities and properties of the mind in our best psychological theories cannot be redefined
in terms of simple behavioural dispositions, and further, that such a redefinition would not be desirable or salient
were it achievable. Psychofunctionalists view psychology as employing the same sorts of irreducibly teleological or
purposive explanations as the biological sciences. Thus, for example, the function or role of the heart is to pump
blood, that of the kidney is to filter it and to maintain certain chemical balances and so onthis is what accounts for
the purposes of scientific explanation and taxonomy. There may be an infinite variety of physical realizations for all
of the mechanisms, but what is important is only their role in the overall biological theory. In an analogous manner,
the role of mental states, such as belief and desire, is determined by the functional or causal role that is designated
for them within our best scientific psychological theory. If some mental state which is postulated by folk psychology
(e.g. hysteria) is determined not to have any fundamental role in cognitive psychological explanation, then that
particular state may be considered not to exist . On the other hand, if it turns out that there are states which
theoretical cognitive psychology posits as necessary for explanation of human behaviour but which are not foreseen
by ordinary folk psychological language, then these entities or states exist.

Analytic functionalism
A third form of functionalism is concerned with the meanings of theoretical terms in general. This view is most
closely associated with David Lewis and is often referred to as analytic functionalism or conceptual
functionalism. The basic idea of analytic functionalism is that theoretical terms are implicitly defined by the theories
in whose formulation they occur and not by intrinsic properties of the phonemes they comprise. In the case of
ordinary language terms, such as "belief", "desire", or "hunger", the idea is that such terms get their meanings from
our common-sense "folk psychological" theories about them, but that such conceptualizations are not sufficient to
withstand the rigor imposed by materialistic theories of reality and causality. Such terms are subject to conceptual
analyses which take something like the following form:
Mental state M is the state that is preconceived by P and causes Q.
For example, the state of pain is caused by sitting on a tack and causes loud cries, and higher order mental states of
anger and resentment directed at the careless person who left a tack lying around. These sorts of functional
definitions in terms of causal roles are claimed to be analytic and a priori truths about the submental states and the
(largely fictitious) propositional attitudes they describe. Hence, its proponents are known as analytic or conceptual
functionalists. The essential difference between analytic and psychofunctionalism is that the latter emphasizes the
importance of laboratory observation and experimentation in the determination of which mental state terms and
concepts are genuine and which functional identifications may be considered to be genuinely contingent and a
posteriori identities. The former, on the other hand, claims that such identities are necessary and not subject to
empirical scientific investigation.

Homuncular functionalism
Homuncular functionalism was developed largely by Daniel Dennett and has been advocated by William Lycan. It
arose in response to the challenges that Ned Block's China Brain (a.k.a. Chinese nation) and John Searle's Chinese
Room thought experiments presented for the more traditional forms of functionalism (see below under 'Criticism').
In attempting to overcome the conceptual difficulties that arose from the idea of a nation full of Chinese people
wired together with each one carrying out the functional or causal role that would normally be ascribed to the mental
states of an individual mind, for example, many functionalists simply bit the bullet, so to speak, and argued that such

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a Chinese nation would indeed possess all of the qualitative and intentional properties of a mind; i.e. it would
become a sort of systemic or collective mind with propositional attitudes and other mental characteristics. Whatever
the worth of this latter hypothesis, it was immediately objected that it entailed an unacceptable sort of mind-mind
supervenience: the systemic mind which somehow emerged at the higher-level must necessarily supervene on the
individual minds of each individual member of the Chinese nation, to stick to Block's formulation. But this would
seem to put into serious doubt, if not directly contradict, the fundamental idea of the supervenience thesis: there can
be no change in the mental realm without some change in the underlying physical substratum. This can be easily
seen if we label the set of mental facts that occur at the higher-level M1 and the set of mental facts that occur at the
lower-level M2. Given the transitivity of supervenience, if M1 supervenes on M2, and M2 supervenes on P (physical
base), then M1 and M2 both supervene on P, even though they are (allegedly) totally different sets of mental facts.
Since mind-mind supervenience seemed to have become acceptable in functionalist circles, it seemed to some that
the only way to resolve the puzzle was to postulate the existence of an entire hierarchical series of mind levels
(analogous to homunculi) which became less and less sophisticated in terms of functional organization and physical
composition all the way down to the level of the physico-mechanical neuron or group of neurons. The homunculi at
each level, on this view, have authentic mental properties but become simpler and less intelligent as one works one's
way down the hierarchy.

Functionalism and physicalism

There is much confusion about the sort of relationship that is claimed to exist (or not exist) between the general
thesis of functionalism and physicalism. It has often been claimed that functionalism somehow "disproves" or
falsifies physicalism tout court (i.e. without further explanation or description). On the other hand, most philosophers
of mind who are functionalists claim to be physicalistsindeed, some of them, such as David Lewis, have claimed
to be strict reductionist-type physicalists.
Functionalism is fundamentally what Ned Block has called a broadly metaphysical thesis as opposed to a narrowly
ontological one. That is, functionalism is not so much concerned with what there is than with what it is that
characterizes a certain type of mental state, e.g. pain, as the type of state that it is. Previous attempts to answer the
mind-body problem have all tried to resolve it by answering both questions: dualism says there are two substances
and that mental states are characterized by their immateriality; behaviorism claimed that there was one substance and
that mental states were behavioral disposition; physicalism asserted the existence of just one substance and
characterized the mental states as physical states (as in "pain = C-fiber firings").
On this understanding, type physicalism can be seen as incompatible with functionalism, since it claims that what
characterizes mental states (e.g. pain) is that they are physical in nature, while functionalism says that what
characterizes pain is its functional/causal role and its relationship with yelling "ouch", etc. However, any weaker sort
of physicalism which makes the simple ontological claim that everything that exists is made up of inorganic matter is
perfectly compatible with functionalism. Moreover, most functionalists who are physicalists require that the
properties that are quantified over in functional definitions be physical properties. Hence, they are physicalists, even
though the general thesis of functionalism itself does not commit them to being so.
In the case of David Lewis, there is a distinction in the concepts of "having pain" (a rigid designator true in all
possible worlds) and just "pain" (a non-rigid designator). Pain, for Lewis, stands for something like the definite
description "the state with the causal role x". The referent of the description in humans is a type of brain state to be
determined by science. The referent among silicon-based life forms is something else. The referent of the description
among angels is some immaterial, non-physical state. For Lewis, therefore, local type-physical reductions are
possible and compatible with conceptual functionalism. (See also Lewis's Mad pain and Martian pain.) There seems
to be some confusion between types and tokens that needs to be cleared up in the functionalist analysis.

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Criticism
China brain
Ned Block[7] argues against the functionalist proposal of multiple realizability, where hardware implementation is
irrelevant because only the functional level is important. The "China brain" or "Chinese nation" thought experiment
involves supposing that the entire nation of China systematically organizes itself to operate just like a brain, with
each individual acting as a neuron (forming what has come to be called a "Blockhead"). According to functionalism,
so long as the people are performing the proper functional roles, with the proper causal relations between inputs and
outputs, the system will be a real mind, with mental states, consciousness, and so on. However, Block argues, this is
patently absurd, so there must be something wrong with the thesis of functionalism since it would allow this to be a
legitimate description of a mind.
Some functionalists believe China would have qualia but that due to the size it is impossible to imagine China being
conscious.[8] Indeed, it may be the case that we are constrained by our theory of mind[9] and will never be able to
understand what Chinese-nation consciousness is like. Therefore, if functionalism is true either qualia will exist
across all hardware or will not exist at all but are illusory.[10]

The Chinese room

The Chinese room argument by John Searle[11] is a direct attack on the claim that thought can be represented as a set
of functions. The thought experiment asserts that it is possible to mimic intelligent action without any interpretation
or understanding through the use of a purely functional system. In short, Searle describes a person who only speaks
English who is in a room with only Chinese symbols in baskets and a rule book in English for moving the symbols
around. The person is then ordered by people outside of the room to follow the rule book for sending certain symbols
out of the room when given certain symbols. Further suppose that the people outside of the room are Chinese
speakers and are communicating with the person inside via the Chinese symbols. According to Searle, it would be
absurd to claim that the English speaker inside knows Chinese simply based on these syntactic processes. This
thought experiment attempts to show that systems which operate merely on syntactic processes (inputs and outputs,
based on algorithms) cannot realize any semantics (meaning) or intentionality (aboutness). Thus, Searle attacks the
idea that thought can be equated with following a set of syntactic rules; that is, functionalism is an insufficient theory
of the mind.
As noted above, in connection with Block's Chinese nation, many functionalists responded to Searle's thought
experiment by suggesting that there was a form of mental activity going on at a higher level than the man in the
Chinese room could comprehend (the so-called "system reply"); that is, the system does know Chinese. Of course,
Searle responds that there is nothing more than syntax going on at the higher-level as well, so this reply is subject to
the same initial problems. Furthermore, Searle suggests the man in the room could simply memorize the rules and
symbol relations. Again, though he would convincingly mimic communication, he would be aware only of the
symbols and rules, not of the meaning behind them.

Inverted spectrum
Another main criticism of functionalism is the inverted spectrum or inverted qualia scenario, most specifically
proposed as an objection to functionalism by Ned Block.[7][12] This thought experiment involves supposing that
there is a person, call her Jane, that is born with a condition which makes her see the opposite spectrum of light that
is normally perceived. Unlike "normal" people, Jane sees the color violet as yellow, orange as blue, and so forth. So,
suppose, for example, that you and Jane are looking at the same orange. While you perceive the fruit as colored
orange, Jane sees it as colored blue. However, when asked what color the piece of fruit is, both you and Jane will
report "orange". In fact, one can see that all of your behavioral as well as functional relations to colors will be the
same. Jane will, for example, properly obey traffic signs just as any other person would, even though this involves

Functionalism (philosophy of mind)

the color perception. Therefore, the argument goes, since there can be two people who are functionally identical, yet
have different mental states (differing in their qualitative or phenomenological aspects), functionalism is not robust
enough to explain individual differences in qualia.[13]
Chalmers tries to show[14] that even though mental content cannot be fully accounted for in functional terms, there is
nevertheless a nomological correlation between mental states and functional states in this world. A silicon-based
robot, for example, whose functional profile matched our own, would have to be fully conscious. His argument for
this claim takes the form of a reductio ad absurdum. The general idea is that since it would be very unlikely for a
conscious human being to experience a change in its qualia which it utterly fails to notice, mental content and
functional profile appear to be inextricably bound together, at least in the human case. If the subject's qualia were to
change, we would expect the subject to notice, and therefore his functional profile to follow suit. A similar argument
is applied to the notion of absent qualia. In this case, Chalmers argues that it would be very unlikely for a subject to
experience a fading of his qualia which he fails to notice and respond to. This, coupled with the independent
assertion that a conscious being's functional profile just could be maintained, irrespective of its experiential state,
leads to the conclusion that the subject of these experiments would remain fully conscious. The problem with this
argument, however, as Brian G. Crabb (2005) has observed, is that it begs the central question: How could Chalmers
know that functional profile can be preserved, for example while the conscious subject's brain is being supplanted
with a silicon substitute, unless he already assumes that the subject's possibly changing qualia would not be a
determining factor? And while changing or fading qualia in a conscious subject might force changes in its functional
profile, this tells us nothing about the case of a permanently inverted or unconscious robot. A subject with inverted
qualia from birth would have nothing to notice or adjust to. Similarly, an unconscious functional simulacrum of
ourselves (a zombie) would have no experiential changes to notice or adjust to. Consequently, Crabb argues,
Chalmers' 'fading qualia' and 'dancing qualia' arguments fail to establish that cases of permanently inverted or absent
qualia are nomologically impossible.
A related critique of the inverted spectrum argument is that it assumes that mental states (differing in their qualitative
or phenomenological aspects) can be independent of the functional relations in the brain. Thus, it begs the question
of functional mental states: its assumption denies the possibility of functionalism itself, without offering any
independent justification for doing so. (Functionalism says that mental states are produced by the functional relations
in the brain.) This same type of problemthat there is no argument, just an antithetical assumption at their
basecan also be said of both the Chinese room and the Chinese nation arguments. Notice, however, that Crabb's
response to Chalmers does not commit this fallacy: His point is the more restricted observation that even if inverted
or absent qualia turn out to be nomologically impossible, and it is perfectly possible that we might subsequently
discover this fact by other means, Chalmers' argument fails to demonstrate that they are impossible.

Twin Earth
The Twin Earth thought experiment, introduced by Hilary Putnam,[15] is responsible for one of the main arguments
used against functionalism, although it was originally intended as an argument against semantic internalism. The
thought experiment is simple and runs as follows. Imagine a Twin Earth which is identical to Earth in every way but
one: water does not have the chemical structure HO, but rather some other structure, say XYZ. It is critical,
however, to note that XYZ on Twin Earth is still called 'water' and exhibits all the same macro-level properties that
HO exhibits on Earth (i.e., XYZ is also a clear drinkable liquid that is in lakes, rivers, and so on). Since these worlds
are identical in every way except in the underlying chemical structure of water, you and your Twin Earth
doppelgnger see exactly the same things, meet exactly the same people, have exactly the same jobs, behave exactly
the same way, and so on. In other words, since you share the same inputs, outputs, and relations between other
mental states, you are functional duplicates. So, for example, you both believe that water is wet. However, the
content of your mental state of believing that water is wet differs from your duplicate's because your belief is of
HO, while your duplicate's is of XYZ. Therefore, so the argument goes, since two people can be functionally
identical, yet have different mental states, functionalism cannot sufficiently account for all mental states.

Functionalism (philosophy of mind)

Most defenders of functionalism initially responded to this argument by attempting to maintain a sharp distinction
between internal and external content. The internal contents of propositional attitudes, for example, would consist
exclusively in those aspects of them which have no relation with the external world and which bear the necessary
functional/causal properties that allow for relations with other internal mental states. Since no one has yet been able
to formulate a clear basis or justification for the existence of such a distinction in mental contents, however, this idea
has generally been abandoned in favor of externalist causal theories of mental contents (also known as informational
semantics). Such a position is represented, for example, by Jerry Fodor's account of an "asymmetric causal theory" of
mental content. This view simply entails the modification of functionalism to include within its scope a very broad
interpretation of input and outputs to include the objects that are the causes of mental representations in the external
world.
The twin earth argument hinges on the assumption that experience with an imitation water would cause a different
mental state than experience with natural water. However, since no one would notice the difference between the two
waters, this assumption seems hard to swallow. Further, this basic assumption is directly antithetical to
functionalism; and, thereby, the twin earth argument does not constitute a genuine argument: as this assumption
entails a flat denial of functionalism itself (which would say that the two waters would not produce different mental
states, because the functional relationships would remain unchanged).

Meaning holism
Another common criticism of functionalism is that it implies a radical form of semantic holism. Block and Fodor[12]
referred to this as the damn/darn problem. The difference between saying "damn" or "darn" when one smashes one's
finger with a hammer can be mentally significant. But since these outputs are, according to functionalism, related to
many (if not all) internal mental states, two people who experience the same pain and react with different outputs
must share little (perhaps nothing) in common in any of their mental states. But this is counter-intuitive; it seems
clear that two people share something significant in their mental states of being in pain if they both smash their
finger with a hammer, whether or not they utter the same word when they cry out in pain.
Another possible solution to this problem is to adopt a moderate (or molecularist) form of holism. But even if this
succeeds in the case of pain, in the case of beliefs and meaning, it faces the difficulty of formulating a distinction
between relevant and non-relevant contents (which can be difficult to do without invoking an analytic-synthetic
distinction, as many seek to avoid).

Triviality Arguments
Hilary Putnam,[16] John Searle,[17] and others[18][19] have offered arguments that functionalism is trivial, i.e. that the
internal structures functionalism tries to discuss turn out to be present everywhere, so that either functionalism turns
out to reduce to behaviorism, or to complete triviality and therefore a form of panpsychism. These arguments
typically use the assumption that physics leads to a progression of unique states, and that functionalist realization is
present whenever there is a mapping from the proposed set of mental states to physical states of the system. Given
that the states of a physical system are always at least slightly unique, such a mapping will always exist, so any
system is a mind. Formulations of functionalism which stipulate absolute requirements on interaction with external
objects (external to the functional account, meaning not defined functionally) are reduced to behaviorism instead of
absolute triviality, because the input-output behavior is still required.
Peter Godfrey-Smith has argued further[20] that such formulations can still be reduced to triviality if they accept a
somewhat innocent-seeming additional assumption. The assumption is that adding a transducer layer, that is, an
input-output system, to an object should not change whether that object has mental states. The transducer layer is
restricted to producing behavior according to a simple mapping, such as a lookup table, from inputs to actions on the
system, and from the state of the system to outputs. However, since the system will be in unique states at each
moment and at each possible input, such a mapping will always exist so there will be a transducer layer which will

Functionalism (philosophy of mind)

produce whatever physical behavior is desired.

Godfrey-Smith believes that these problems can be addressed using causality, but that it may be necessary to posit a
continuum between objects being minds and not being minds rather than an absolute distinction. Furthermore,
constraining the mappings seems to require either consideration of the external behavior as in behaviorism, or
discussion of the internal structure of the realization as in identity theory; and though multiple realizability does not
seem to be lost, the functionalist claim of the autonomy of high-level functional description becomes
questionable.[20]

References
[1] Block, Ned. (1996). "What is functionalism?" a revised version of the entry on functionalism in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy Supplement,
Macmillan. ( PDF online (http:/ / www. nyu. edu/ gsas/ dept/ philo/ faculty/ block/ papers/ functionalism. pdf))
[2] Marr, D. (1982). Vision: A Computational Approach. San Francisco: Freeman & Co.
[3] Lewis, David. (1980). "Mad Pain and Martian Pain". In Block (1980a) Vol. 1, pp.216222.
[4] Armstrong, D.M. (1968). A Materialistic Theory of the Mind. London: RKP.
[5] Putnam, Hilary. (1960). "Minds and Machines". Reprinted in Putnam (1975a).
[6] Putnam, Hilary. (1967). "Psychological Predicates". In Art, Mind, and Religion, W.H. Capitan and D.D. Merrill (eds.), pp.3748. (Later
published as "The Nature of Mental States" in Putnam (1975a).
[7] Block, Ned. (1980b). "Troubles With Functionalism", in (1980a).
[8] Lycan, W. (1987) Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

[9] Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the Autistic Child Have a "Theory of Mind"? Cognition21, 37-46
[10] Dennet, D. (1990) Quining Qualia. In W. Lycan, (ed), Mind and Cognition. Oxford: Blackwells
[11] Searle, John. (1980). "Minds, Brains and Programs", Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol.3. ( online (http:/ / www. bbsonline. org/ Preprints/
OldArchive/ bbs. searle2. html))
[12] Block, Ned and Fodor, J. (1972). "What Psychological States Are Not". Philosophical Review 81.
[13] Block, Ned. (1994). Qualia. In S. Guttenplan (ed), A Companion to Philosophy of Mind. Oxford: Blackwell
[14] Chalmers, David. (1996). The Conscious Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[15] Putnam, Hilary. (1975b). "The Meaning of 'Meaning'", reprinted in Putnam (1975a).( PDF online (http:/ / internalism. googlegroups. com/
web/ Putnam - The meaning of 'meaning'.
pdf?gda=twdJY1oAAABFSTngQf24Sy1RD7yNn1iVgy3Odg0ZctAT1N_Bh2qhdGG1qiJ7UbTIup-M2XPURDQe1sJTwbuelxnpaL6JzH4yeFMfiRQRvg6UTOJgQ
[16] Putnam, H. (1988). Reality and representation. Appendix. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[17] Searle, J. (1990). Is the brain a digital computer? Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, 64, 2137.
[18] Chalmers, D. (1996). Does a rock implement every nite-state automaton? Synthese, 108, 309333.
[19] Copeland, J. (1996). What is computation? Synthese, 108, 335359.
[20] Peter Godfrey-Smith, "Triviality Arguments against Functionalism". 2009. Philosophical studies 145 (2). (http:/ / philpapers. org/ rec/
GODTAA)/ (http:/ / www. people. fas. harvard. edu/ ~pgs/ TrivArgtsFnm-08-Zweb. pdf)

Further reading
Armstrong, D.M. (1968). A Materialistic Theory of the Mind. London: RKP.
Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the Autistic Child Have a "Theory of Mind"? Cognition21,
37-46
Block, Ned. (1980a). "Introduction: What Is Functionalism?" in Readings in Philosophy of Psychology.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Block, Ned. (1980b). "Troubles With Functionalism", in Block (1980a).
Block, Ned. (1994). Qualia. In S. Guttenplan (ed), A Companion to Philosophy of Mind. Oxford: Blackwell
Block, Ned. (1996). "What is functionalism?" a revised version of the entry on functionalism in The Encyclopedia
of Philosophy Supplement, Macmillan. ( PDF online (http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/faculty/block/
papers/functionalism.pdf))
Block, Ned and Fodor, J. (1972). "What Psychological States Are Not". Philosophical Review 81.
Chalmers, David. (1996). The Conscious Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Crabb, B.G. (2005). "Fading and Dancing Qualia - Moving and Shaking Arguments", Deunant Books.

Functionalism (philosophy of mind)

DeLancey, C. (2002). "Passionate Engines - What Emotions Reveal about the Mind and Artificial Intelligence."
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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External links
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/functionalism/)
Dictionary of the Philosophy of Mind (http://philosophy.uwaterloo.ca/MindDict/functionalism.html)

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