Question

Explain in detail Putnam’s functionalist account of mental states. According to Chalmers, why does functionalism fail to solve “the hard problem of consciousness”

Explain in 300 words

Answer 1

Functionalism is a doctrine that states that the mental states are constituted entirely by their functional roles. The internal constitution does not matter. What matters is the function or the purpose.

David Chalmer, a philosopher, gave us the term "the hard problem of consciousness". This is the problem relating to the relationship between physical phenomena and experience. There are phenomena that are functionally definable. For example, how brain categorises and discriminates environmental stimuli. These are called easy problems, in contrast to hard problems. According to McGinn, we are cognitively closed to solving the hard problem. Functionalism cannot help us solve the hard problem. It may help us understand the hard problem but not solve it.