Full Idea
On the functionalist account of mental properties, just where does a mental property get its causal powers?
Gist of Idea
How do functional states give rise to mental causation?
Source
Jaegwon Kim (Philosophy of Mind [1996], p.118)
Book Reference
Kim,Jaegwon: 'Philosophy of Mind' [Westview 1998], p.118
A Reaction
That is the key problem. Something can only have a function if it has intrinsic powers (corkscrews are rigid and helix-shaped). It can't be irrelevant that pain hurts.