01:730:329 Chapter Notes - Chapter functionalism: Materialism, Physicalism
Document Summary
A mental state is caused by its relations to sensory stimulations, behavior, etc. (basically the internal workings) Pain can be a state that tends to be caused by an injury to the body. To cause this belief in the first place means that something is wrong with the body which causes anxiety and worry. This belief system means that only living things with internal states are capable of being in pain. There are no restrictions as to what constitutes to have mental states, bc there can be ideas that cause mental states in non-living things (i. e. c-fiber stimulation) It is neutral when it comes to materialism and dualism. Materialism can be considered to be the same thing as physicalism. Materialists believe that any states capable of having mental states will be physical states as well, which basically means that functionalism is an alternative school of thought to the identity theory.
