Functionalism: Responses To The Mind Brain Identity Theory

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Some of the most famous arguments advocating for functionalism are responses to the mind brain identity theory, not behaviorism. According to Smart (1959), the identity theory states, “sensations are brain processes.” Theoretically, if mental state are equal to brain states, then there is a one-to-one relationship between mental states and brain states. If an individual has sensation Sfunctional role. Using pain as an example, the functional role associated with pain would be the response to harm that leads to avoidant behavior in the future. We can call this r (for “role”). In both types of functionalism, x would represent the pain if x has some property that has role r. At this point one might ask, “What is the pain itself?” And for the role functionalist the answer would be that the pain has some specific property that has r. But for the realizer functionalist, the answer would be that the pain has some specific property r in an organism, or in a similar organism. Thus, realizer functionalism is compatible with “domain-specific reductions.” Strengths of Functionalism: However, functionalism is one of the only solutions to the mind body problem that is able to integrate multiple theories to strengthen its validity.…show more content…
The identity theory interprets the casual efficiency of mental states in a very interesting way. In principle, the identity theory allows to derive the causal role of mental phenomena from their physical substrates. And this key principle is where identity theory and functionalism differ greatly. Functionalism is superior to identity theory because it is anti-reductionistic. Thus, mental properties cannot be reduced to physical properties. Therefore, functionalism is able to fix a huge problem of identity theory, the violations of Leibniz’s
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