Hi Sören- your general point (am I critiquing FRI, or functionalism?) is reasonable. I do note in the piece why I focus on FRI:
Note: FRI is not the only EA organization which holds functionalist views on consciousness; much of the following critique would also apply to e.g. MIRI, FHI, and OpenPhil. I focus on FRI because (1) Brian’s writings on consciousness & functionalism have been hugely influential in the community, and are clear enough to criticize; (2) the fact that FRI is particularly clear about what it cares about- suffering- allows a particularly clear critique about what problems it will run into with functionalism; (3) I believe FRI is at the forefront of an important cause area which has not crystallized yet, and I think it’s critically important to get these objections bouncing around this subcommunity.
I should say too that the purpose of bringing up QRI’s work is not to suggest FRI should be focusing on this, but instead that effort developing alternatives helps calibrate the field:
I mention all this because I think analytic functionalism- which is to say radical skepticism/eliminativism, the metaphysics of last resort- only looks as good as it does because nobody’s been building out any alternatives.
Hi Sören- your general point (am I critiquing FRI, or functionalism?) is reasonable. I do note in the piece why I focus on FRI:
I should say too that the purpose of bringing up QRI’s work is not to suggest FRI should be focusing on this, but instead that effort developing alternatives helps calibrate the field:
Makes sense :)