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Full Idea
Certain thought experiments made trouble for standard functionalism, which limits input/output to the surface of an individual; proposals to extend this into the environment reduces the reliance on a computer paradigm, but increases complexity.
Gist of Idea
Broad concepts suggest an extension of the mind into the environment (less computer-like)
Source
Tyler Burge (Philosophy of Mind: 1950-2000 [2005], p.454)
Book Ref
Burge,Tyler: 'Foundations of the Mind' [OUP 2007], p.454
A Reaction
[He has the Twin Earth experiment in mind] The jury is out on this, but it looks a bit of a slippery slope. Accounts of action and responsibility need a fairly sharp concept of an individual. Externalism begins to look like just a new scepticism.
| 8126 | Anti-individualism says the environment is involved in the individuation of some mental states [Burge] |
| 8127 | Broad concepts suggest an extension of the mind into the environment (less computer-like) [Burge] |
| 8129 | Anti-individualism may be incompatible with some sorts of self-knowledge [Burge] |
| 8131 | Some qualities of experience, like blurred vision, have no function at all [Burge] |
| 8132 | We now have a much more sophisticated understanding of logical form in language [Burge] |