CF Debate

Functional Definition Circularity

Methodology

Overview

Functionalists argue that a mental state like pain does not feel 'painful' in virtue of its intrinsic nature but because of the relationships between that mental state and other mental states. But if mental states are defined in terms of mental states, we have circular definitions, which risks unraveling the robustness of the CF foundations.

Responses

  1. This argument has been formally rebutted by Ramsey-Lewis functionalism, e.g. each defined mental state type has a unique definition in terms of the other state types, and so all of the resulting definitions are provably non-circular. In fact, grounding in causal relationships is an argument in favour of CF (see Ontic Structural Realism).

Further reading