9.	It may be objected that this begs the question against the possession of mental states by machines. However, the definition does not deny that organisms may share, e.g., functional states with non-living things. That is, psychology might be understood as taking organisms, specifically higher mammals, and most of all humans, as the *paradigm* object of study, while leaving it open that nonliving systems that prove sufficiently like humans in relevant respects will share abstract types of states with them and therefore will be important objects of study as well.<p>