 It should be noted that a somewhat similar framework for understanding eliminative materialism is provided by David Lewis’s discussion of functional definitions in psychology (1972) (see the entry on  functionalism).  In Lewis’s account, our commonsense mental notions can be treated as functionally defined theoretical terms that appear in a chain of Ramsey-sentences. The Ramsey-sentences are a formal reconstruction of the platitudes of commonsense psychology. They provide a set of roles or conditions that more or less must be met for the instantiation of any given state. If nothing comes close to actually filling the roles specified by this framework for a certain state, then we are warranted in saying that the theoretical posit in question doesn’t refer and there is no such thing. Eliminative materialists claim that this is precisely what will happen with at least some of our folk mental notions.