Functionalism

Yolanda Kounkou

PSY 331

Daniel Olson

January 17, 2011

Functionalism is anything that analyses something in the terms of its function. Functionalism defines things by its causes and effects for example a functionalist in philosophy of mind defines the mental state and the properties in terms of the causes and effects that are displayed in behavior. If the cause and effect have the same properties then they will be the same, any alleged objection against functionalism cannot account for the inner nature of conscious experience. This would make sense because some individuals may be exposed to the same stimuli and show the same behaviors; while they are not experiencing the same inner experiences then maybe some individuals may not have any inner experiences at all.

Functionalism is offered as a solution to the mind and body, solutions to the mind and body answers questions such as the nature of the mental. These solutions also include what makes a mental state, and what do thoughts have in common with the virtual of thoughts. Behaviorism identifies mental states with dispositions functionalism says mental states are constituted by their casual relations to each other

However, analytic philosophy of the twentieth century is one of the major theoretical developments it provides the conceptual underlining of much work in cognitive science.

The Functionalist theory bolsters the scientific method that can be applied to the study of the social and physical world. Functionalist theory can be looked at objectively the social world can also be value-free and uninfluenced by the values of the investigator .Theorist like Thorndike Edward Lee , Thorndike started his career studying the mental telepathy of young children he studied and did experiments on animals and humans late in his career ....