In This Selection Churchland Examines Functionalism and the Two Prominent

question 2

True/False

In this selection Churchland examines functionalism and the two prominent versions of materialism in philosophy of mind. Reductivism claims that there is an identity of mental states with brain states. Functionalism rejects any one-to-one correlation between mental types and physical types and concentrates on the relationship between inputs and outputs. For example, the mental event of pain could be similar in two beings that have altogether different types of bodies and brains. Most functionalists are materialists, but someone could be a functionalist and be a nonmaterialist. Eliminative materialism is more radical than either of these other theories and seeks to eliminate "folk psychology"-talk of beliefs, feelings, and perceptions-in favor of more scientific descriptions of what is going on in the brain. Churchland concludes that the truth may be a combination of the two materialist theories, although the evidence points more in the direction of eliminativism.
-Smart's theory posits a kind of property dualism.

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Definitions:

Cataracts

A medical condition that causes clouding of the eye's natural lens, leading to decreased vision, which is commonly related to aging.

Blind Spots

Areas in our perception where we lack awareness or understanding, often used metaphorically; in vision, the part of the retina without photoreceptors, where the optic nerve exits, leading to a lack of visual detection.

Decibels

A logarithmic unit of measurement that expresses the magnitude of a physical quantity (originally sound intensity) relative to a specified or implied reference level.

Immanuel Kant

A German philosopher from the 18th century, renowned for his critical philosophy that includes the Critique of Pure Reason, emphasizing the role of skepticism and the limits of human understanding.