Is Thinker a Natural Kind?
- 1 June 1982
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review/Revue Canadienne de Philosophie
- Vol. 21 (2) , 223-238
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s001221730001636x
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.Keywords
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