TokenIdentitätstheorie

Token Identitätstheorie, often shortened to Token Identity Theory, is a philosophical concept primarily discussed within the philosophy of mind and artificial intelligence. It proposes that mental states or tokens, such as specific thoughts or beliefs, are not defined by their underlying physical substrate or the material substance they are made of, but rather by their functional role and causal relations within a system. In essence, any physical system that can replicate the functional organization and causal interactions of a particular mental token could, in principle, instantiate that same mental token.

This theory draws a parallel to the concept of a "token" in linguistics, where a specific instance of a word, like the word "cat" appearing on this page, is distinct from the abstract type "cat" but its meaning and function are determined by its role in the sentence and its relationship to other words. Similarly, a "token" mental state is a particular occurrence of a mental state, and its identity is determined by its causal powers and its place within the overall cognitive architecture.

Token Identity Theory stands in contrast to type identity theory, which asserts that specific mental states are identical to specific types of physical brain states. The token identity theorist argues that while a specific instance of pain (a token) might be realized by a specific pattern of neural firing (a type), other physically different systems, like a sufficiently advanced artificial intelligence, could also instantiate the same functional role and thus possess the same token mental state. This functionalist approach allows for the possibility of multiple realizability of mental states across different physical systems.