Ned Joel Block is an American philosopher working in the field of the philosophy of mind who has made important contributions to matters of consciousness and cognitive science. In 1971, he obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University under Hilary Putnam. He went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an assistant professor of philosophy, worked as associate professor of philosophy, professor of philosophy and served as chair of the philosophy section. He has, since 1996, been a professor in the departments of philosophy and psychology and at the Center for Neural Science at New York University. Block is noted for presenting the Blockhead argument against the Turing Test as a test of intelligence in a paper entitled Psychologism and Behaviorism. He is also known for his criticism of functionalism, arguing that a system with the same functional states as a human is not necessarily conscious. 

January 1st, 1942 in Chicago (Age 82)