In my readings of the two chapters from the book, Body and Mind, written by
Keith Campbell, I explored my mind to Central-State Materialism and
Functionalism. Both these states have differences and similarities between them.
Starting off with Central-State Materialism; then, I reflected my readings, and
then viewed Functionalism and stated my readings. The main point of this paper
is to give a few supporting details on the similarities and differences
Central-State Materialism, and a few points supporting Functionalism. The
chapter on Central-State Materialism first introduces us to the Casual Theory of
mind, and learning new terms such as, essentially casual and essentially
effectual. This is just like a cause and effect concept, that every decision you
make is a decision that you made through your mental state because of a certain
effect. Our essentially effectual mental behavior is produced by an action, but
our essentially casual mental behavior is made for a condition of capacity for a
behavior. However we do not always use a capacity for a behavior, but the
thought always arises. Central-State Materialism evolved from the man known as
Armstrong, but a man by the name of Place was the first to get an Identity
Theory out in the open. Campbell tells us, the Casual Theory of mind is coherent
to Behaviorism, and these states show the disposing of men to certain forms of
their behavior(79). For example, a mans actions are based upon his inner states
and that causes him to act differently in particular situations. As the Casual
Theory says that all of the mental states of mind causes a person to seek one
path rather than seeking another throughout his life. In Central-State
Materialism the Casual Theory of the mind has two strands that many mental
events and processes are yet factual causes of parts of behavior that belong to
different patterns. Thus mental causes get their name from the different
behavior patterns of the mind. The mental states in the first strand of the
Casual Theory of mind under Central-State Materialism is casually producing a
desired effect or an influence in the behavior. Campbell clarifies that doing
this will avoid a major problem of Behaviorism. The first strand acknowledges
that the mind is an inner, separate, and standing behind behavior (80). Campbell
directly states the second strand of the Casual Theory of the mind says mental
terms get meaning by reference to behavioral effects of the mental states they
denote. But the difference between the first and second strands are that one
tries to shun away a problem frm Behaviorism to occur, and the other preserves
the truth of Behaviorism (81). In the Casual Theory of mind corresponding to
Central State Materialism shows that Behaviorism has a connection of mind with
behavior, but they may not be referring to the same ideas. In the Casual Theory
of mind we place positivism under meaningful conditions, which are given that
bodily movements are perceptible and they lead to the Behaviorism of minds using
some of our sense organs. Descartes’ view of the Mind is stating that it is
all on the inside, and that our minds are a private thing. The Identity Theory
says and identifies that types of mental states correspond with types of
physical states, but this is only true in some cases of Central-State
Materialism. This is saying that for example the type-type Identity Theory, all
types of pain are physical types just like everyone else, and takes response to
the mental being of your brain. This renders that no alien, no non-human brain,
otherwise known as an animal, no artificial brain like computers could feel pain
because none of them have human like brain states. We have what are known as
stimuli and their responses to our behavior, and these stimuli come from the
experiences we gather over time. The central nervous system plays an important
role in this mental state because without this system we could not find what our
behavior is intending on doing for us. Many Casual Theorist which are also know
as Dualist describes mental life as inner states of causes in bodily actions.
The events and processes are mainly the effect of behavior, the central nervous
system is this because of our behavior reacting to the system this is also in
the same way to Functionalism. “Central-State Materialism is thus the most
uncompromisingly economical version of the Casual Theory of mind.” (Campbell
87). In Behaviorism the only defense is that Central-State Materialism is with
the mind, not with the Mind-Body problem. In Central-State Materialism our acts
are always caused, but they are always free. Never can another force decide what
I am going to do, only my mind can make the decision for me. If I want to eat an
apple, I will then eat an apple. Someone might ask why do you eat that apple?
You think for a second and suppose you reply back saying I am eating the apple
because I just simply want to eat an apple, this is based upon your free will of
eating an apple. But say you were hungry and acknowledged the fact that you were
hungry; then, that would be caused by an outside force and not something chosen
by free will it would be chosen by your hunger. The two strands of Central-State
Materialism, one that it is the cause of behavior, and the central nervous
system is the cause of behavior which are our minds. “The Casual Theory of
mind states that descriptions of mental events, states, processes are
descriptions on inner conditions insofar as they are, directly or indirectly,
causally efficacious in the behavior of an organism.” (Campbell 97). This is
saying that having a view or vision maybe of something that could be true, but
might not because it did not occur in our present behavior. Functionalism, on
the other hand, has a few similarities and differences with Central-State
Materialism but do corresponds with each other. Throughout time the Casual
Theory of the mind played a significant role in Central-State Materialism and
several different aspects of Central-State Materialism. Now, recently the Casual
Theory of mind has improved to what is known as Functionalism. Functionalism is
looked upon how one determines and perceives his or her life. The perception on
how someone chooses their goals in life, and how they want to achieve those
goals is the function of Functionalism. In Functionalism you must use the sense
organs to gain your knowledge of what you learn and experience around you. The
environment that you are based around is how you learn and rule out the right
and wrongs about life; however, learning from your mistakes and then
acknowledging them when they occur again is that experience. Manifested in the
Casual Theory of mental terms is that Functionalism emphasizes the importance
that the mental states have two sorts of effect. The first effect is that they
modify behavior. The second effect results in the change of other mental states;
then, they impact on the goals and how one pursues them. In Central-State
Materialism we have what are known as two strands of the Casual Theory of mind,
this is just as so for Functionalism as stated above. Functionalism is the
theory that gives meaning to all of the psychological terms. Campbell describes,
that we can show how complex mental processes produce sub-elements which are
also functional (111). The central nervous system allows us to find mechanisms
in the nerve tissues. The sub-units in the process of functional analysis lets
us understand how the mechanisms work. The connection with Materialism to
Functionalism is that the mental functions are acted out by the nervous system.
In recent years the functional conception of the mind has aided to the
enhancement of computer technology. Also we can use Artificial Intelligence,
this solves very increased difficult problems. The way a sub-unit processes
information is having inputs that change an internal state and outputs that are
transformed. In doing this we recognized this as a functional description. A
functional description is performed for an artificial intelligence, which can
relate to natural intelligence. The Casual Theory of the mind was then adopted
by Functionalism and had developed into more detail and depth in the mental
state known as Functionalism. The Central-State Materialism is in association
with the Casual Theory of the mind. Since it is understood because of the
different mental states and that the processes were also in different states and
along with the central nervous system, this gives the association between
Central-State Materialism and our Casual Theory of the mind with Functionalism.
But in some instances this is not true because if the right sorts of states and
the processes of our central nervous system are not correct we can not have any
of these states or processes. Human chauvinism clearly states that only humans
with human being internal workings, and only these human beings can perform
these ideas: how one thinks, remembers, feels, or solve problems are only
consider human beings. Although saying that we do not acknowledge the
intelligence of other beings with minds is inaccurate, for already having the
simple knowledge we all know today that another type of being does have similar
minds. Remarking that certain animals with relatively similar minds compared to
a humans mind is depicting how some human chauvinist think and act toward this
idea. Where certain animals like dogs, cats, chimps, and gorillas are said to
have minds that operate like us human beings, but might not exactly be
comparable to humans because of the internal workings. These other beings behave
just as we do humans do and have comparable minds like ours, this shows also in
our Casual Theory of mind corresponding to Central-State Materialism that
Behaviorism has a connection of mind with our behavior. No matter what you are
made of, what counts is the way you do it and what you are doing. We all
obtained information from the outside world, be it through our sensations, the
way we percept something, or being through different experiences throughout ones
life. All this is stored and used in another way cohesively for the experiences
that are to come in the future and they will reflect back to your perception of
what happened before. Human chauvinism can be accepted if functional
descriptions are satisfactory, and people believe that other beings are like us.
Now we can come to realize that there are different relationships between the
state of mind and the inner bodily state that is known as a one-one
relationship. Campbell considers that, there is a one-many relationship having
similar mental states and many different sorts of physical or spiritual stuff
and structure involved (117). We can turn to the central nervous system to
understand that this relationship can be recognized from its mental state to its
physical state. Just as to we revealed this same process in Central-State
Materialism we now are conducting it in Funcationalism also. Under Functionalism
we take in the Identity Theory that there is a similar relation of the mind to
the brain, which is a logical concept. To go further into our theory from
type-type we established the token-token relationship. Because we have thought
of a theory as always a material state, it is now to be that an individual case
as a mental state, and the other token is said to be a material state. So for
any different being that is upset, but no matter what that being is an alien,
chimp, or human people we are thought of being constructed differently, but
being upset is all in the same state. It would be impossible to evaluate a
token-token identification because someone simply does not have time to go
through the evidence showing in the instances of the times that someone was
upset. The way we could do this is being more specific with the topic and
searching where and why this person became upset. We have also seen
Functionalism developed more into detail with the Casual Theory through
embodiment and supervenience. “ Functional holds that the essential aspects of
any mental description is its account of how input alters an inner element of
the organism, and so changes the organism’s behavioral output and dispositions
to behavior. ”(Campbell 119) Here we have something like the organism from the
external world, which is acting into and inner structure which is know as the
mind. But brain descriptions do not take this form because it relates to how the
brain works, what is the brain composed of, and how both of these work to
complete the job together. Both of these descriptions have different objectives,
and also their characteristics differ as well. Now the aspect of the mind in
psychology which is showing mental functions is impossible to be degraded to
some other physiological description, and is describing that psychological
knowledge is knowledge of the functions, and physiology deals with their
embodiment. A mental supervenient is its embodiment of mental characteristics of
Functionalism. Functionalism in the Materialist form is yet the strongest form
on Materialism developed. In conclusion, I have shared my opinions on the
similarities and differences of both states, first as you read on Central-State
Materialism; then, on Functionalism. This has showed me that these to states are
yet opposite in one way, but coherent to each other at times and the mind does
work in strange ways with our brain, central nervous system, our perception and
behavior.

Bibliography1. Campbell, Keith. “Central-State Materialism,” Body and Mind, 2ND
edition. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984, 77-109. 2.
Campbell, Keith. “Functionalism,” Body and Mind, 2nd edition. Notre Dame,
Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984, 110-123.