FREE ESSAY ON CENTRAL-STATE MATERIALISM & FUNCTIONALISM

CENTRAL-STATE MATERIALISM & FUNCTIONALISM

In my readings of the two chapters from the book, Body and Mind, written by Keith
Campbell, I explored my mind to Central-State Materialism and Functionalism. Both these
states have differences and similarities between them. Starting off with Central-State
Materialism; then, I reflected my readings, and then viewed Functionalism and stated my
readings. The main point of this paper is to give a few supporting details on the
similarities and differences Central-State Materialism, and a few points supporting
Functionalism.
The chapter on Central-State Materialism first introduces us to the Casual Theory of
mind, and learning new terms such as, essentially casual and essentially effectual. This
is just like a cause and effect concept, that every decision you make is a decision that
you made through your mental state because of a certain effect. Our essentially effectual
mental behavior is produced by an action, but our essentially casual mental behavior is
made for a condition of capacity for a behavior. However we do not always use a capacity
for a behavior, but the thought always arises. Central-State Materialism evolved from the
man known as Armstrong, but a man by the name of Place was the first to get an Identity
Theory out in the open. Campbell tells us, the Casual Theory of mind is coherent to
Behaviorism, and these states show the disposing of men to certain forms of their
behavior(79). For example, a mans actions are based upon his inner states and that causes
him to act differently in particular situations. As the Casual Theory says that all of
the mental states of mind causes a person to seek one path rather than seeking another
throughout his life. 
In Central-State Materialism the Casual Theory of the mind has two strands that many
mental events and processes are yet factual causes of parts of behavior that belong to
different patterns. Thus mental causes get their name from the different behavior
patterns of the mind. The mental states in the first strand of the Casual Theory of mind
under Central-State Materialism is casually producing a desired effect or an influence in
the behavior. Campbell clarifies that doing 
this will avoid a major problem of Behaviorism. The first strand acknowledges that the
mind is an inner, separate, and standing behind behavior (80). Campbell directly states
the second strand of the Casual Theory of the mind says mental terms get meaning by
reference to behavioral effects of the mental states they denote. But the difference
between the first and second strands are that one tries to shun away a problem frm
Behaviorism to occur, and the other preserves the truth of Behaviorism (81). In the
Casual Theory of mind corresponding to Central State Materialism shows that Behaviorism
has a connection of mind with behavior, but they may not be referring to the same ideas.

In the Casual Theory of mind we place positivism under meaningful conditions, which are
given that bodily movements are perceptible and they lead to the Behaviorism of minds
using some of our sense organs. Descartes' view of the Mind is stating that it is all on
the inside, and that our minds are a private thing. The Identity Theory says and
identifies that types of mental states correspond with types of physical states, but this
is only true in some cases of Central-State Materialism. This is saying that for example
the type-type Identity Theory, all types of pain are physical types just like everyone
else, and takes response to the mental being of your brain. This renders that no alien,
no non-human brain, otherwise known as an animal, no artificial brain like computers
could feel pain because none of them have human like brain states.
We have what are known as stimuli and their responses to our behavior, and these stimuli
come from the experiences we gather over time. The central nervous system plays an
important role in this mental state because without this system we could not find what
our behavior is intending on doing for us. Many Casual Theorist which are also know as
Dualist describes mental life as inner states of causes in bodily actions. The events and
processes are mainly the effect of 
behavior, the central nervous system is this because of our behavior reacting to the
system this is also in the same way to Functionalism. "Central-State Materialism is thus
the most uncompromisingly economical version of the Casual Theory of mind." (Campbell
87). In Behaviorism the only defense is that Central-State Materialism is with the mind,
not with the Mind-Body problem. 
In Central-State Materialism our acts are always caused, but they are always free. Never
can another force decide what I am going to do, only my mind can make the decision for
me. If I want to eat an apple, I will then eat an apple. Someone might ask why do you eat
that apple? You think for a second and suppose you reply back saying I am eating the
apple because I just simply want to eat an apple, this is based upon your free will of
eating an apple. But say you were hungry and acknowledged the fact that you were hungry;
then, that would be caused by an outside force and not something chosen by free will it
would be chosen by your hunger. 
The two strands of Central-State Materialism, one that it is the cause of behavior, and
the central nervous system is the cause of behavior which are our minds. "The Casual
Theory of mind states that descriptions of mental events, states, processes are
descriptions on inner conditions insofar as they are, directly or indirectly, causally
efficacious in the behavior of an organism." (Campbell 97). This is saying that having a
view or vision maybe of something that could be true, but might not because it did not
occur in our present behavior. 
Functionalism, on the other hand, has a few similarities and differences with
Central-State Materialism but do corresponds with each other. Throughout time the Casual
Theory of the mind played a significant role in Central-State Materialism and several
different aspects of Central-State Materialism. Now, recently the Casual Theory of mind
has improved to what is known as Functionalism. Functionalism is looked upon how one
determines and perceives his or her life. 
The perception on how someone chooses their goals in life, and how they want to achieve
those goals is the function of Functionalism. In Functionalism you must use the sense
organs to gain your knowledge of what you learn and experience around you. The
environment that you are based around is how you learn and rule out the right and wrongs
about life; however, learning from your mistakes and then acknowledging them when they
occur again is that experience.
Manifested in the Casual Theory of mental terms is that Functionalism emphasizes the
importance that the mental states have two sorts of effect. The first effect is that they
modify behavior. The second effect results in the change of other mental states; then,
they impact on the goals and how one pursues them. In Central-State Materialism we have
what are known as two strands of the Casual Theory of mind, this is just as so for
Functionalism as stated above. Functionalism is the theory that gives meaning to all of
the psychological terms. Campbell describes, that we can show how complex mental
processes produce sub-elements which are also functional (111).
The central nervous system allows us to find mechanisms in the nerve tissues. The
sub-units in the process of functional analysis lets us understand how the mechanisms
work. The connection with Materialism to Functionalism is that the mental functions are
acted out by the nervous system. In recent years the functional conception of the mind
has aided to the enhancement of computer technology. Also we can use Artificial
Intelligence, this solves very increased difficult problems. The way a sub-unit processes
information is having inputs that change an internal state and outputs that are
transformed. In doing this we recognized this as a functional description. A functional
description is performed for an artificial intelligence, which can relate to natural
intelligence. 
The Casual Theory of the mind was then adopted by Functionalism and had developed 
into more detail and depth in the mental state known as Functionalism. The Central-State

Materialism is in association with the Casual Theory of the mind. Since it is understood
because of the different mental states and that the processes were also in different
states and along with the central nervous system, this gives the association between
Central-State Materialism and our Casual Theory of the mind with Functionalism. But in
some instances this is not true because if the right sorts of states and the processes of
our central nervous system are not correct we can not have any of these states or
processes.
Human chauvinism clearly states that only humans with human being internal workings, and
only these human beings can perform these ideas: how one thinks, remembers, feels, or
solve problems are only consider human beings. Although saying that we do not acknowledge
the intelligence of other beings with minds is inaccurate, for already having the simple
knowledge we all know today that another type of being does have similar minds. Remarking
that certain animals with relatively similar minds compared to a humans mind is depicting
how some human chauvinist think and act toward this idea. Where certain animals like
dogs, cats, chimps, and gorillas are said to have minds that operate like us human
beings, but might not exactly be comparable to humans because of the internal workings.
These other beings behave just as we do humans do and have comparable minds like ours,
this shows also in our Casual Theory of mind corresponding to Central-State Materialism
that Behaviorism has a connection of mind with our behavior. 
No matter what you are made of, what counts is the way you do it and what you are doing.
We all obtained information from the outside world, be it through our sensations, the way
we percept something, or being through different experiences throughout ones life. All
this is stored and used in another way cohesively for the experiences that are to come in
the future and they will reflect back to your perception of what happened before. Human
chauvinism can be accepted if functional descriptions are satisfactory, and people
believe that other beings are like us. 
Now we can come to realize that there are different relationships between the state of
mind and the inner bodily state that is known as a one-one relationship. Campbell
considers that, there is a one-many relationship having similar mental states and many
different sorts of physical or spiritual stuff and structure involved (117). We can turn
to the central nervous system to understand that this relationship can be recognized from
its mental state to its physical state. Just as to we revealed this same process in
Central-State Materialism we now are conducting it in Funcationalism also. Under
Functionalism we take in the Identity Theory that there is a similar relation of the mind
to the brain, which is a logical concept. To go further into our theory from type-type we
established the token-token relationship. Because we have thought of a theory as always a
material state, it is now to be that an individual case as a mental state, and the other
token is said to be a material state. So for any different being that is upset, but no
matter what that being is an alien, chimp, or human people we are thought of being
constructed differently, but being upset is all in the same state. It would be impossible
to evaluate a token-token identification because someone simply does not have time to go
through the evidence showing in the instances of the times that someone was upset. The
way we could do this is being more specific with the topic and searching where and why
this person became upset. 
We have also seen Functionalism developed more into detail with the Casual Theory through
embodiment and supervenience. " Functional holds that the essential aspects of any mental
description is its account of how input alters an inner element of the organism, and so
changes the organism's behavioral output and dispositions to behavior. "(Campbell 119)
Here we have something like the organism from the external world, which is acting into
and inner structure which is know as the mind. But brain descriptions do not take this
form because it relates to how the brain works, what is the brain composed of, and how
both of these work to complete the job together. Both of these descriptions have
different objectives, and also their characteristics differ as well. Now the aspect of
the mind in psychology which is showing mental functions is impossible to be degraded to
some other physiological description, and is describing that psychological knowledge is
knowledge of the functions, and physiology deals with their embodiment. A mental
supervenient is its embodiment of mental characteristics of Functionalism. Functionalism
in the Materialist form is yet the strongest form on Materialism developed.
In conclusion, I have shared my opinions on the similarities and differences of both
states, first as you read on Central-State Materialism; then, on Functionalism. This has
showed me that these to states are yet opposite in one way, but coherent to each other at
times and the mind does work in strange ways with our brain, central nervous system, our
perception and behavior.
Bibliography
Works Cited
1. Campbell, Keith. "Central-State Materialism," Body and Mind, 2ND edition. Notre Dame,
Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984, 77-109.
2. Campbell, Keith. "Functionalism," Body and Mind, 2nd edition. Notre Dame, Indiana:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1984, 110-123.