Functionalism
What is the relationship between the mind and the body? This problem has been one that has plagued philosophers since the beginnings of philosophy. It is extremely difficult to develop a distinction between the mind and body and role the mental plays in relation to the physical realm. In recent years, the works of dualism, physicalism, behaviorism, and identity theory sought to serve as an explanation for this issue, but many philosophers felt that these explanations did not suffice. The non-acceptance of these philosophical doctrines lead to the immergence of functionalism. Functionalism is the philosophical doctrine in which mental states are defined by their causes and effects. In this paper I assert that functionalism is the ideal
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In this room there are two cabinets, one cabinet possessing Chinese script that you must mail and other script in English possesses rules teaching you how to transcribe the symbols. The English rules correlate to the Chinese script and allow you to write the Chinese script accurately as well as respond to questions written in Chinese, however you actually have no knowledge or understanding of the Chinese language due to the semantics involved. This argument is significant because it shows that a program can engage in complex processes, but not have an understanding or consciousness of what it is that it is engaging in. One of the noted objections to this argument is known as the systems objection. This objection states that the Chinese room has focused on the wrong subject, this subject being the individual. Instead of focusing on the individual in the room, one must look at the system holistically. When this is done, it can be seen that the system does in fact have a developed understanding of the processes involved. Searle responded to this objection by stating that if the individual is not capable of understanding the semantics, then the system is incapable as well because he is apart of the system. The warrant of this argument by Searle is that the Chinese argument has been used to undermine machine functionalism and has been extremely revelatory to the problems that functionalism faces, in particular
In this room there are two cabinets, one cabinet possessing Chinese script that you must mail and other script in English possesses rules teaching you how to transcribe the symbols. The English rules correlate to the Chinese script and allow you to write the Chinese script accurately as well as respond to questions written in Chinese, however you actually have no knowledge or understanding of the Chinese language due to the semantics involved. This argument is significant because it shows that a program can engage in complex processes, but not have an understanding or consciousness of what it is that it is engaging in. One of the noted objections to this argument is known as the systems objection. This objection states that the Chinese room has focused on the wrong subject, this subject being the individual. Instead of focusing on the individual in the room, one must look at the system holistically. When this is done, it can be seen that the system does in fact have a developed understanding of the processes involved. Searle responded to this objection by stating that if the individual is not capable of understanding the semantics, then the system is incapable as well because he is apart of the system. The warrant of this argument by Searle is that the Chinese argument has been used to undermine machine functionalism and has been extremely revelatory to the problems that functionalism faces, in particular