Synopsis:
- Semantic externalism
- Meaning is not in the mind" ("water" in "twin earths")
- Meaning exhibits an identity through time, but not in its essence
- Most people know what gold is, and still they cannot explain what it is
- If some day we found out that Chemistry has erred in counting the electrons of the atom of gold, this would not change what it is
- The meaning of the word "gold" is not its scientific definition, but the meaning that a community has given it
- Functionalism
- If a mental state can be realized in more than one physical state (more than one brain), is the physical state important at all?
- What is it that makes a physical state of the brain also a mental state? the function it performs (eg, thermometer)
- Mental states have a function
- A mind doesn't necessarily require a brain
- The mind is a symbol processor, and mental states are related to computational states
- The mind is the software and the brain is its hardware
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- Functionalism
- The execution of that program (the mind) in that hardware (brain, computer,_) yields behavior
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