Contemporary thinkers tend not to pin too much faith on behaviourism of this kind. They prefer a slightly more elaborate doctrine known as functionalism. This too pays prime attention to the function of the mental state. But it identifies that function in a slightly more relaxed way. It allows for a network of physical relationships: not only dispositions to behaviour, but typical causes, and even effects on other mental states—providing those in turn become suitably expressed in physical dispositions. But the idea is essentially similar.
