---
title: "Functionalism · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/functionalism
description: "Functionalism is the view that a mental state is defined by what it does: how it connects to inputs, outputs and other mental states."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Philosophy of mind

# Functionalism

Definition

Functionalism is the view that a mental state is defined by what it does: how it connects to inputs, outputs and other mental states. What it’s physically made of doesn’t matter.

On this site

The Functional mind model. Each neuron is a node and each synapse is a weight, and nothing else is represented.

Role in the model

The Functional mind model is functionalism with a number on it: each neuron is a node, each synapse is a weight, and nothing else is represented. If only the rough functional organisation matters, this rung is enough for a mind. If finer physical detail matters, you need a higher rung, all the way up to the quantum one. If no digital version can be conscious, as Searle and integrated information theory say, no rung works.

Related

[Computationalism](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/computationalism)[Substrate independence](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/substrate-independence)[Philosophical zombie](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/philosophical-zombie)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)