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BACKGROUND Many theories of Mental States are Physicalist . That is, they describe the mind as the behavior of a physical object like the brain. The most prominent example is the Identity Theory , which says that the mind ''is'' the brain. One criticism is the problem of Multiple Realisability . The physicalist theory that responds to this is Functionalism , which states that a mental state can be whatever functions as a mental state. That is, the mind can be composed of Neurons , or it could be composed of Wood . It only needs to be doing the mental state ''job''. THE THOUGHT EXPERIMENT In the China brain thought experiment, we take all the people in China, and give them all a cell phone. The plan is to represent a human brain. We give each person simple instructions like:
Each person with a cell phone represents a Neuron in the human brain, as they are doing the same ''job'' as a neuron does in the brain. In this case, if the entiretly of China can be coordinated to as to act in the way that a conscious entity might then, according to functionalism, this system would have a Mind . Block's goal is to show how Unintuitive it is to think that such an arrangement could create a collective mind. Consciousness The China brain argues that consciousness is a problem for functionalism. It's easy to claim that the China brain could produce the same stimulus-response behaviours as a human brain, but not intuitive to conclude that the cell phone network is Conscious . CRITICISMS Chauvinism Some philosophers like Daniel Dennett , have concluded that the China brain does create a mental state. Our intuition that this is impossible is just a bias against non-neuron minds, furthered by the implausibility of the scenario. There is a natural desire for us to locate the mind at a singularity because the mind ''feels'' to us like it is just one thing. Functionalist philosophers of mind endorses the idea that something like the China brain can realise a mind, and that neurons are, in principle, not the only material that can create a mental state. SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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