Frank Jackson and Philip Pettit defended this theory’s ability to describe states with broad content. A 1990 paper uses Gilbert Harman’s example of an Earth where the sky is yellow to defend a variant of this theory that “reaches out into the world.” It’s not a theory of identity, but this theory applies to beings with “psychological persistence conditions” according to its proponent Sydney Shoemaker. The Lockean objection that this theory fails to describe people with an (*) “inverted spectrum” of color is presented in a Ned Block article titled “Troubles With” this theory, which developed the “China brain” thought experiment. Hilary Putnam developed this theory, which incorporates multiple realizability, by arguing that minds are machines. For 10 points, what theory holds that mental states are defined by what they do? ■END■
ANSWER: functionalism [accept analytic functionalism; accept synthetic functionalism; accept machine-state functionalism; accept “Functionalism and Broad Content”; accept long-arm functionalism; accept “Troubles With Functionalism”; prompt on computationalism or the computational theory of mind or CTM by asking “can you be less specific?”; prompt on physicalism]
<MB, Philosophy>
= Average correct buzz position