Mind: A Brief Introduction (John R. Searle) / quote 76 of 138

Materialism leaves something out

In this chapter I will present the most common arguments against materialism, concentrating on functionalism, because it is currently the most influential version of materialism. In general, these attacks have the same logical structure: the materialist account leaves out some essential feature of the mind such as consciousness or intentionality. In the jargon of philosophers, the materialist analysis fails to give sufficient conditions for mental phenomena, because it is possible to satisfy the materialist analysis and not have the appropriate mental phenomena.

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#materialism #functionalism #consciousness #intentionality

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