Category: Functionalism

The article “On Functionalism and Materialism” offers powerful philosophical arguments on the issue of functionalism. To begin with, the author “offers a critical analysis of two different aspects of philosophical materialism of human mind” (Pojman and Vaughn 239). Reductivism “supports the identity of different brain states and mental states” (Pojman and Vaughn 242).

The “concept of Functionalism goes further to reject the one-on-one correlation between physical types and mental types” (Pojman and Vaughn 243). That being the case, the concept mainly focuses on the relationships between outputs and the targeted inputs. The scholar uses the example of pain because it is a mental event.

The article explains how “mental pain can be similar in two or more human beings even if they have different brain or body types” (Pojman and Vaughn 239). The article goes further to explain why many functionalists are usually materialistic in nature. However, some individuals can be functionalists and non-materialists.

This knowledge makes it easier for the reader to understand how Eliminative Materialism tends to eliminate various aspects such as perception, concept, feeling, and belief. Eliminative Materialism goes further to support the scientific description of the developments encountered in people’s brains. The most powerful idea in this article is that human beings can be functionalists without being materialistic in nature (Pojman and Vaughn 276). This approach will encourage more people to reformulate their worldviews.

The idea has encouraged me to think differently about my values, beliefs, and opinions about the world. The author encourages every reader to combine the two versions of materialism in philosophy of mind in order to achieve his or her potentials. The strategy will make it easier for more individuals to understand the issues taking place in their minds (or lives).

I have understood how to use both scientific and non-scientific concepts to analyze the events taking place in my mind. The practice will eventually support my religious beliefs and ethical values. It is agreeable that people cannot understand most of the issues associated with human life (Pojman and Vaughn 289). The best thing is for every individual to have a positive perception about his or her life.

The above thinking is acceptable because the two versions of materialism support different human perceptions. My goal is to become a non-materialist in order to support my beliefs, values, and perceptions. My duty is to use different versions of materialism depending on the targeted goals or obligations.

Eliminative Materialism (EM) will make it easier for me to understand the major events taking place in my brain. I will also use the concept of Reductivism to accept everything that cannot be explained using scientific arguments (Pojman and Vaughn 247). This strategy will eventually support my view of the universe.

This approach will eliminate the doubts that make it impossible for many people to have strong religious foundations. Functionalism supports the relationship between various mental inputs and outputs. This knowledge is relevant because it explains why different individuals with different body types encounter similar experiences of pain.

This knowledge explains why the two aspects of materialism will make it easier for individuals to redefine their lives (Pojman and Vaughn 268). The truth about the universe can only be achieved by combining the two materialist theories proposed by Paul Churchland. My goal is to focus on the best ideas and arguments that will support my religious faith. I will also treat life as something precious and immeasurable. This approach will make it easier for me to achieve my religious goals.

Works Cited

Pojman, Louis, and Lewis Vaughn. Philosophy: The Quest for Truth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. Print.

Introduction

Emile Durkheim 1858 to 1917 was a sociologist from France who proposed theories on sociology and anthropology. His works include subjects such as Crime, suicide, education, religion, and other aspects of society. This paper discusses his Functionalist theory on Criminology and how society contributes to Crime and gives birth to criminals.

The Functionalist theory

As suggested by Theodorson (1969) ‘Functionalist theory involves the analysis of social and cultural phenomena in terms of the functions they perform in a sociocultural system. In functionalism, society is conceived of as a system of interrelated parts in which no part can be understood in isolation from the whole. A change in any part is seen as leading to a certain degree of imbalance, which in turn results in changes in other parts of the system and, to some extent, to a reorganization of the system as a whole. The development of functionalism was based on the model of the organic system found in the biological sciences.

Lukes (1985) points that there are three elements of functionalism, and they are: the general interrelatedness, or interdependence of the system’s parts; the existence of a “normal” state of affairs, or state of equilibrium, comparable to the normal or healthy state of an organism and the way that all the parts of the system reorganize to bring things back to normal. In analyzing how social systems maintain and restore equilibrium, functionalists tend to use shared values or generally accepted standards of desirability as a central concept. Value consensus means that individuals will be morally committed to their society. The concept of norms is a basic building block in sociological theory. Some important terms that relate to Social Problems are Positive Sanctions, Negative Sanctions, Informal Sanctions, Formal Sanctions, Folkways, Laws, and Mores.

Emile Durkheim on Crime and Criminology

Durkheim (1895) proposed that Crime is a socially constructed category and that different societies define behavior in different ways. So while women in scanty dresses and who consume alcohol or smoke are acceptable social behavior in Western countries, it would be a crime in certain societies such as Saudi Arabia. The same form of behavior may be defined differently at different times in the same society and as an example, till the 1960s, attempted suicide was a punishable offense in England, and if a person attempted suicide and failed, the person was liable for punishment. Crime is related to law, and the concept of power since someone must have the power to create particular laws / proscribe various forms of behavior. Durkheim proposed that the nature and distribution of power in the society would have some effect upon the way in which people understand the nature of law, Crime, and deviance generally.

Wallace (1992) has pointed out that according to Durkheim, Punishment is a social reaction to Crime. It serves not simply the obvious functions of retribution for the criminal and general deterrence of Crime; it also fulfills the generally unrecognized but critical function of maintaining the intensity of collective sentiments, or what modern functionalists call shared values (in this case, the objection to criminal activity. According to the author, “punishment has the useful function of maintaining these sentiments at the same level of intensity, for they could not fail to weaken it if the offenses committed against them remained unpunished.” Durkheim has suggested that in societies, the purpose of punishment was more important than the dignity or rights of the individual being punished. This explains why punishments are almost always public events in simpler societies. The focus on the individualistic, self-centered modern complex societies totally distorts the “value-upholding” “normative” process of swift public punishments

Durkheim (1895) suggested that deviance is important to the well-being of society and proposed that challenges to established moral and legal laws such as deviance and Crime, acted to unify the law-abiding. Recognition and punishment of crimes is, in effect, the very reaffirmation of the laws and moral boundaries of a society. The existence of laws and the strength are upheld by members of a society when violations are recognized, discussed, and dealt with either by legal punishment such as jail, fines, execution or by social punishment such as shame, ex-communication, and exile. The sociologist has argued that Crime actually produces social solidarity, rather than weakens it. He suggested that Crime and deviance brought people in a society together. When a law is violated, especially within small communities, everyone talks about it. Meetings are sometimes held, articles are written for local news publications, and in general, a social community bristles with activity when a norm is broken. As is most often the case, a violation incites the non-violators or society as a whole to cling together in opposition to the violation, reaffirming that society’s bond and its adherence to certain norms.

Turner (1998) has pointed out that according to Durkheim, deviance and Crime also help to promote social change. While most violations of norms are greeted with opposition by the masses, others are sometimes not, and those violations that gain support often are re-examined by that society. Often, those activities that once were considered deviant, are reconsidered and become part of the norms, simply because they gained support by a large portion of the society. In sum, deviance can help a society to rethink its boundaries, and move toward social change, hopefully for the greater benefit of the group.

In retrospect, Durkheim suggests that the shared values and norms of societies keep evolving, changing and adapting to time and as time passes, a progressive society becomes more tolerant and many incidents such as drunk driving, brawling, binge drinking, causing traffic violations, padding of expense accounts and others become more acceptable as society evolves. It is only heinous crimes such as murder, rape, kidnapping, theft, and others that are regarded as criminal activities.

References

Durkheim, Emile. 1895. The Rules of Sociological Method (eds 1982). New York: The Free Press.

Lukes Steven. 1985. Emile Durkheim: His Life and Work, a Historical and Critical Study. Stanford University Press.

Theodorson, George A. and Achilles S. Theodorson, eds. 1969. A Modern Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.

Turner, Jonathan H., Leonard Beeghley, and Charles H. Powers. 1998. The Emergence of Sociological Theory. 4th ed. Cincinnati,OH: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Wallace, Ruth A. and Alison Wolf. 1999. Contemporary Sociological Theory: Expanding the Classical Tradition. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.