(PoM essay) Functionalism: Can't we just say that consciousness depends on the higher-level organization of a given system?

John Gregg, Intro: Functionalism, roughly, is the idea that
consciousness is to be identified not with a particular physical
implementation (like squishy gray brains or the particular neurons
that the brains are made of), but rather with the functional
organization of a system. The human brain, then, is seen by a
functionalist as a particular physical implementation of a certain
functional layout, but not necessarily the only possible
implementation. The same functional organization could, presumably, be
manifested or implemented by a computer (for example), which would
then be conscious. It is not the actual physical system or what it is
doing on a physical level that matters to a functionalist, but the
abstract "block diagram" that it implements. The doctrine of
functionalism may fairly be said to be the underlying assumption of
the entire field of cognitive science...... http://home.comcast.net/~johnrgregg/function.htm

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Science Miscellaneous features sci-tech news, philosophy of science,
space exploration, the physical sciences, the social & psychological
sciences, the biological sciences.

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sci-Cognitive (usenet group). Read and post at:
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.cognitive OR news:sci.cognitive OR
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Cognitive Science is an interdisciplinary field that includes
philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, computer science, linguistics,
biology, information science, anthropology, physics.

=John Searle= "As recently as a hundred years ago, the central
question was still about knowledge [epistemology]. But now, the center
of philosophical debate is philosophy of mind."

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