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Single Idea 2583

[filed under theme 17. Mind and Body / C. Functionalism / 1. Functionalism ]

Full Idea

It is hard to see how to make sense of the analog of color spectrum inversion with respect to non-qualitative states such a beliefs (where they are functionally equivalent but have different beliefs).

Gist of Idea

You might invert colours, but you can't invert beliefs

Source

Ned Block (Troubles with Functionalism [1978], p. 81)

Book Ref

'The Philosophy of Mind', ed/tr. Beakley,B /Ludlow P [MIT 1992], p.81

A Reaction

I would suggest that beliefs can be 'inverted', because there are all sorts of ways to implement a belief, but colour can't be inverted, because that depends on a particular brain state. It makes good sense to me...

The 16 ideas from Ned Block

6172 The Inverted Earth example shows that phenomenal properties are not representational [Block, by Rowlands]
18033 The meaning of a representation is its role in thought, perception or decisions [Block]
2574 Behaviour requires knowledge as well as dispositions [Block]
2576 In functionalism, desires are internal states with causal relations [Block]
2575 Functionalism is behaviourism, but with mental states as intermediaries [Block]
2578 Could a creature without a brain be in the right functional state for pain? [Block]
2577 Simple machine-functionalism says mind just is a Turing machine [Block]
2580 A Turing machine, given a state and input, specifies an output and the next state [Block]
2579 Physicalism is prejudiced in favour of our neurology, when other systems might have minds [Block]
2581 Intuition may say that a complex sentence is ungrammatical, but linguistics can show that it is not [Block]
2582 A brain looks no more likely than anything else to cause qualia [Block]
2583 You might invert colours, but you can't invert beliefs [Block]
2584 Lobotomised patients can cease to care about a pain [Block]
2585 Not just any old functional network will have mental states [Block]
2586 In functionalism, what are the special inputs and outputs of conscious creatures? [Block]
3178 A fast machine could pass all behavioural tests with a vast lookup table [Block, by Rey]