PHI 107 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Physicalism, Mental Property
9 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
You can"t define one mental state at a time--you pull in many other different mental states. Having a mind is being system that is organized in the right way. Mental states are defined in terms of the functional roles they play within such an organized system. Those functional roles are defined in terms of how the state is related to the system"s inputs (stimuli), the system"s outputs (behavior), other states of the system. It"s not the hardware (brain) it"s the system (mental function like pain) (example of pain: caused by body damage, produces avoidance behavior, interferes with attention, causes memories, desires) all the mental connections not just one. Mental types are defined by what they do, what function or role they perform, rather than by what they are made of. Being a memory a desire or an emotion is like being an eye, a stomach, etc.
