A propósito del alcance de las interpretaciones funcionalistas de la psicología aristotélica y del carácter causal del alma
Abstract
In this essay I argue that there are no reasons to believe that Aristotle would have agreed with psychological functionalism, i.e. the thesis maintaining that the identity of a mental state is determined by its causal relations with sensorial stimuli, other mental states or conduct. From such a general characterization it follows that the mental states are "multiply realizable'', as they can occur in different systems under the only condition that such systems perform their functions properly. In § 2 seven arguments, some textual and others conceptual, are offered against the funcionalist interpretation of Aristotle's psychology In § 3 I try to show that the Aristotelian "functionalism'' can be perfectly understood without assuming some basic premises of contemporary funcionalism; in § 4 I briefly deal with the difficulty that some contemporary approaches have to attribute causal powers to the mind, and I contrast such a view with the causal role of certain psychic states in the Aristotelian psychology.