Causal Argument Vs Multiple Dualism Essay

When talking about functionalism, it’s easier to explain it by explaining first that it is divided into two main arguments: Causal argument and the multiple realization argument. To begin with, the causal argument argues against behaviorism, to better understand behaviorism, it is the view that everything and anything there is to know about people, in regard to their mental states, can be known by their behaviors. The multiple realization argument, is ideally the same concept, except it argues against the mind and brain identity theory, also known as “reductive materialism” states that mental events can be grouped into specific types and then can correlate with types of physical events that go on as well in the brain. According to a critique on behaviorism, the causal argument suggests that mental states are states that play causal roles, which lead to another type of functionalism, analytical functionalism. At this point, this can be compared to substance dualism, which is where it is believed that there are two different kinds of substances in the world (physical or material), and property dualism,
There are two general strategies when it comes to multiple realizations. The first is the actual multiple realizations of mental states, and second is the possibility of it. For example Putnam uses molluscs to explain how they feel pain, but it is chemically and physically different than the pain that is caused in us humans. There is said to be problems with this argument, they argue how it presumes facts about how molluscs have pain, and that it is similar to human pain. It’s said to be a possibility that they can go through what would be a painful physical change for us, without actually undergoing pain. It is also questionable if their pain is the same as the neural functioning of