- Published: January 4, 2022
- Updated: January 4, 2022
- University / College: University of Pennsylvania
- Level: Masters
- Language: English
- Downloads: 1
Theory of the Mind Unit Aristotle was a Greek philosopher born in Macedon but spent most ofhis life. His philosophy was mostly based on the concept of the mind. Such writing was contained in his literary works known as the ‘ De anima’ which focused on the issues of the soul. He also included in most of his monographs such as those dealing with sense-perceptions, memory and dreams (Carruthers, 1998).
Functionalism, on the other hand is a contemporary theory dealing with the mind. It is used as an alternative to behaviorism. It is based on the core idea that mental beliefs are causal to other sensory inputs and behavioral inputs. It is therefore, different from other concepts such as Cartesian dualism and Skinnerian behaviorism (Carruthers, 1998).
Therefore, the two theories are compatible in this regard as they discuss various concepts of the mind. Their thinking and philosophies are based on the fact that the mind rather than the soul. The man is defined by is relationship to an organic structure. Both theories state that it is not only humans that have souls and intrinsic principles but also beasts and plants (Carruthers, 1998).
According to Aristotle, plants have vegetative souls and these include the powers of growth, nutrition and reproduction. Human beings on the other hand, have additional powers of perceptions and locomotion and for this they possess a sensitive soul. The existence of the sensitive soul is manifested by the fact that each animal has a sense faculty(Carruthers, 1998).
Functional roles help identify mental states. There are several types of functionalism, and these include: machine state functionalism, psych functionalism, analytic functionalism, Homuncular functionalism and Mechanistic functionalism. All these types of functionalism point to the fact that, mental states are manifested in individual system such as computers as long as the necessary as the system perform the required set of functions (Carruthers, 1998).
References
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Carruthers, P. (1998). Theories of theories of mind. Cambridge [u. a.: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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