Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-995ml Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T15:19:15.640Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Is Thinker a Natural Kind?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2010

Paul M. Churchland
Affiliation:
University of Manitoba

Abstract

Functionalism in the philosophy of mind is here criticized from the perspective of a more naturalistic and less compromising form of materialism. Parallels are explored between the problem of cognitive activity and the somewhat more settled problem of vital activity. The lessons drawn suggest that functionalism in the philosophy of mind may be both counterproductive as a research strategy, and false as a substantive position.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Block, N. (1978), “Troubles with Functionalism”, Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 9, ed. Savage, C. W. (Minneapolis).Google Scholar
Blum, H. F. (1951), Time's Arrow and Evolution (Princeton).Google Scholar
Brillouin, L. (1956), Science and Information Theory (New York).Google Scholar
Churchland, P. M. (1979), Scientific Realism and the Plasticity of Mind (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Churchland, P. M.(1981a), “Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes”, Journal of Philosophy 78/2 (02).Google Scholar
Churchland, P. M.(1981b), “Functionalism, Qualia, and Intentionality”, with Churchland, P. S., Philosophical Topics 12/1.Google Scholar
Churchland, P. S. (1978), “Fodor on Language Learning”, Synthese, 38.Google Scholar
Churchland, P. M.(1980a), “A Perspective on Mind-Brain Research”, Journal of Philosophy 7774 (04).Google Scholar
Churchland, P. M.(1980b), “Language, Thought, and Information Processing”, Nous 14/2 (05),Google Scholar
Dennett, D. C. (1969), Content and Consciousness (London).Google Scholar
Dennett, D. C. (1978), Brainstorms (Montgomery, Vermont).Google Scholar
Fodor, J. A. (1968), Psychological Explanation New York).Google Scholar
Fodor, J. A. (1975), The Language of Thought (New York).Google Scholar
Fodor, J. A. (1980), “Methodological solipsism considered as a research strategy in cognitive psychology”, The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3/1 (03).Google Scholar
Glansdorff, P., and Prigogine, I..(1971), Thermodynamic Theory of Structure, Stability, and Fluctuations (London).Google Scholar
Morowitz, H. J. (1968), Energy Flow in Biology (New York).Google Scholar
Prigogine, I. (1967), Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes (New York).Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1960), “Minds and Machines”, in Dimensions of Mind, ed. Hook, Sidney (New York).Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1964), “Robots: Machines or Artificially Created Life?”, Journal of Philosophy 21.Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1967), “The Mental Life of Some Machines”, in Intentionality, Minds, and Perception, ed. Castaneda, H. (Detroit).Google Scholar
Pylyshyn, Z. (1980), “Computation and Cognition”, The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3/1 (03).Google Scholar
Richardson, R. C. (1979), “Functionalism and Reductionism”, Philosophy of Science 46/4.Google Scholar
Ruiz-Marcos, A., and Valverde, F. (1969), “The temporal evolution of the distribution of dendritic spines in the visual cortex of normal and dark raised mice”, Experimental Brain Research 8, 284294.,Google Scholar
Sellars, W. (1956), “Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind”, Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. I, eds. Feigl, and Scriven, (Minneapolis).Google Scholar
Sellars, W. (1963), Science, Perception, and Reality (London).Google Scholar
Schrodinger, E. (1944), What is Life? (Cambridge).Google Scholar