Functionalism and Self-Consciousness

Author: McCullagh, Mark

Source: Mind & Language, Volume 15, Number 5, November 2000 , pp. 481-499(19)

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Abstract:

I offer a philosophically well-motivated work-around for a problem that George Bealer (`Self-consciousness', Philosophical Review v. 106, 1997) has identified, which he claims is fatal to functionalism. The problem concerns how to generate a satisfactory Ramsey sentence of a psychological theory in which mental predicates occur within the scopes of other mental predicates. My central claim is that the functional roles in terms of which a creature capable of self-consciousness identifies her own mental states must be roles that items could play within creatures whose psychology is less complex than her own.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-0017.00146

Affiliations: 1: Department of Philosophy, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275-0142, USA

Publication date: 2000-11-01