ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to explain its application in the Functionalist philosophy of mind. David Lewis’s Causal Functionalism arises from what he takes to be the best logical account of how theoretical terms are embedded within a total theory based on certain kinds of evidence. Functionalism is a form of mechanism about mind. It denies that the mind is a creative spirit that transcends the capacities of any machine. Each particular mind can be captured, in principle, by the action of a Turing machine. The Functionalist conceives of one’s mind as a program. A program specifies how the system is to make transitions among different states, in response to monitored inputs; and also specifies how it is to create outputs. Usually, critics focus on the phenomenal, agreeing that Functionalism might still be a workable model of what can be known about the mind from a third-person, psychological point of view.
