The central argument for functionalism is the so-called argument from multiple realizations. According to this argument, because
a functionally characterized system admits a potential infinity of structurally diverse physical realizations, the functional
organization of such systems cannot be captured in a law-like manner at the level of physical description (and, thus, must
be treated as a principally autonomous domain of inquiry). I offer a rebuttal of this argument based on formal modeling of
its premises in the framework of automata theory. In this formal model I exploit the so-called minimal (universal) realizations
of automata behaviors to show that the argument from multiple realizations is not just invalid but is refutable, in the sense
that its premises (when made formally precise) entail the very opposite of the functionalist's conclusion.
This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.