ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the early formulation of functionalism in the work of Jerry Fodor. Functionalists are especially interested in mental states such as belief. The mind, whatever it might be, is simply the thing or, better, the system in which mental states occur. The key to understanding a mental state is asking what its function is. Jerry Fodor grounds functionalism in the cognitive sciences, the "developments in artificial intelligence, computational theory, linguistics, cybernetics and psychology" and their common denominator, systems that process information. Jerry Fodor grounds functionalism in the cognitive sciences, the "developments in artificial intelligence, computational theory, linguistics, cybernetics and psychology", and their common denominator, systems that process information. Fodor is committed to what might be described as event/event causation: an act of clowning, a clowning event, must be preceded by an event that causes it.
