Dualism: The Pros And Cons Of Functionalism

What is functionalism? The Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy defines it as
“Functionalism is a theory about the nature of mental states. […] mental states are identified by what they do rather than by what they are made of.”
It is a way of defining consciousness that can account for both problems of mental causation and multiple realization which seemed to be problematic in two other definitions of Behaviourism and Identity Theory. The pros and cons of the theory revolve around the questions of does it define consciousness, how does it define mental causation that is mental thoughts cause the body to respond, and how does it allow for multiple realization that is different animals have the same function.
Dualist believes that the mind body problem is two separate entities and this idea is at the heart of most religions and famously René Descartes claim that mind and body are separate. The main problem for Dualist is to explain how a non-physical mind can control the physical body, rather than trying to find a connection some philosophers that takes the view that both are physical. Fodor shows that this physicalist view creates a requirement to explain consciousness or more finely the mental states. What is it when we …show more content…
Even ignoring these problems another challenge could be the stoic person who does not exhibit the behaviours, for example if that person does not exhibit any behaviours of pain, even when the pain centre is stimulated is that person actually in the pain state? Identity theory say’s yes as it is identical area that is active, but behaviourism needs to be negative. Functionalism seems to be siding with Identity theory, in that they are in that state but is unclear about not having the disposition of the