Lexicon of Arguments

 

I 269
Functionalism: is the assumption that certain aspects of the mind can be discussed without any knowledge of the brain. Thesis: the same mental operations can be performed quite well by material systems.
Cf. >Materialism, >Thinking, >Brain, >Brain states, >Mental states, >World/thinking.
I 269f
FunctionalismVsMaterialism: functionalism has strangely enough caused serious problems for certain materialistic theories of mind. It cannot be said that the mind is nothing other than the brain, therefore nothing other than this material system, if the mind itself can be functionally defined and something is given that supports all its functions, but otherwise is different from the brain.
Cf. >Identity theory.
How can the mind be equated with the brain and just as well with the computer when on the other hand the computer and the brain cannot be equated with each other? Identity is transitive. That would not be fulfilled here.
>Computer model, >Computation, >Cognition.