PHL105Y5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Theory Of Computation, Turing Test, John Searle

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2 Nov 2016
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Functionalism the theory that mental states can be sufficiently defined by their cause, their effect on other mental states, and their effect on behaviour. During the 20th century, powerful machines known as computers were created. When given an input, such as a math problem, computers were able to process an output, such as the solution to the problem, at amazing rates. This observation led to many philosophers beginning to think that computers could help to abolish the barriers that behaviourists faced within their theory. Functionalism holds that we should explain mental activities and mental states in terms of sense inputs and behavioural outputs. Using a mental concept, such as belief, we can see the connection the material brain makes between the input and the output. Mental states and activities only refer to the functions they serve in the process that connects our sensory outputs to our behavioural outputs. Functionalism allows that interior mental states can explain other mental states.

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