Functionalism Makes a Stronger Coarseness Claim Than Structuralism, Not Weaker
jessi_cata · x · 2026-09-05
A debate on the relationship between functionalism and structuralism in philosophy of mind. The author argues that functionalism, as a view requiring substrate-independence, actually makes a stronger independence/coarseness claim than structuralism.
Key points:
- Structuralism: same structure → same consciousness
- Functionalism: same function → same consciousness, plus same structure → same function
- Formally: if f is coarser than s (whenever f(x1)=f(x2) then s(x1)=s(x2)), then saying "g depends only on f" is stronger than "g depends only on s"
- So the subset relation, if any, runs the opposite way from the intuition that functionalism is the broader view
Related event: Debate: Is Functionalism a Stronger Claim Than Structuralism?(3 posts)→
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