Promotes functionalism
Serves primarily to promote functionalism positions in philosophy of mind, but may also be applied elsewhere. See here for discussion of positions.
Supporting Arguments (7)
Fading Qualia
If you slowly replaced your neurons with functionally equivalent chips, your consciousness would fade but you wouldn't be able to report it.
Dancing Qualia
If your neurons were rapidly swapped with functionally equivalent chips that don't support qualia, you would not be able to report the "dance".
Natural Selection Argument
Evolution would not select for consciousness if it didn't have a useful function.
Anti-Mystery / Pro-Parsimony Debate
A scientific, functional explanation is simpler and thus preferable to one that invokes the mystery of qualia.
Introspection of Functions
When we look inward, we only observe the functional roles of our mental states, and never "non-functional" qualia.
Ontic Structural Realism
If reality is fundamentally just a set of relationships, then consciousness is also defined by its relational (and thus functional) structure.
Phenomenal-Functional Correlational Evidence
Our subjective experiences track functional changes, suggesting consciousness is identical with those functions.