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Mind

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Philosophy

   Mind refers to the collective aspects of intellect and consciousness
   which are manifest in some combination of thought, perception, emotion,
   will and imagination.

   There are many theories of what the mind is and how it works, dating
   back to Plato, Aristotle and other Ancient Greek and Indian
   philosophers. Pre-scientific theories, which were rooted in theology,
   concentrated on the relationship between the mind and the soul, the
   supposed supernatural or divine essence of the human person. Modern
   theories, based on a scientific understanding of the brain, see the
   mind as a phenomenon of psychology, and the term is often used more or
   less synonymously with consciousness.

   The question of which human attributes make up the mind is also much
   debated. Some argue that only the "higher" intellectual functions
   constitute mind: particularly reason and memory. In this view the
   emotions - love, hate, fear, joy - are more "primitive" or subjective
   in nature and should be seen as different in nature or origin to the
   mind. Others argue that the rational and the emotional sides of the
   human person cannot be separated, that they are of the same nature and
   origin, and that they should all be considered as part of the
   individual mind.

Thought

   In popular usage mind is frequently synonymous with thought: It is that
   private conversation with ourselves that we carry on "inside our heads"
   during every waking moment of our lives. Thus we "make up our minds,"
   "change our minds" or are "of two minds" about something. One of the
   key attributes of the mind in this sense is that it is a private sphere
   with unlimited power. No-one else can "know our mind." They can only
   know what we communicate.

On Brain-Mind

   The understanding of natural phenomena and the origin and mystery of
   life has been an ageless human concern. Many millennia ago, long before
   written historic records and language, the human species evolved,
   survived natural catastrophes, and most likely formed a minimal social
   life by communicating with one another via grunts and signs. Around
   3000 BC, in Western Europe, Asia and China, a social life existed
   within disparate familial ‘national’ groups in frequent war with one
   another. In the ‘fertile crescent’ of northwest Africa (Mesopotamia)
   for example, nations were governed by despotic Pharaohs (Egypt), Kings
   (Babylon), and Patriarchs who based their rule on differing mythic
   beliefs in gods and religions. Between 600 and 300 BC in the Aegean
   islands and Greece, progress in verbal and symbolic written language
   sparked the beginning of a thoughtful dialectic search (via Homer,
   Socrates, Plato, Aristotle) for a better foundation of existing beliefs
   on religious, politics, and economics related to human life as well as
   for rules governing natural phenomena. It was not until 1650 AD,
   however, that in Great Britain Isaac Newton a man of genius developed a
   unique ‘scientific’ ability to conceptualize and analyze with
   mathematical accuracy many natural phenomena (how bodies move in
   space-time). Two centuries later Michael Faraday experimentally
   explained the interconnection between electric and magnetic phenomena
   and James Clerk Maxwell translated Faraday’s concepts into a
   "scientific" mathematical theory of how electromagnetic waves are
   excited and propagated in space-time. In a remarkable series of five
   papers in 1905 Albert Einstein then showed that space and time were
   related, that light could be viewed either as an electromagnetic wave
   or as a system of particles. These "scientific" abilities spawned
   technological inventions with deep impact on the quality of human
   lives. But efforts to learn and explain basic human behavior did not
   achieve a level of success comparable to that in the "sciences". Ideas
   that worked so well in solving problems via “science" methods were not
   readily adaptable to the more difficult human problems associated with
   long standing spiritual beliefs. Belief patterns stem from intimately
   related mind phenomena emanating from thought, memory, and emotion
   processes within a complex physical structure --the human brain. At
   birth our brain is almost not there. Brain growth during childhood
   depends markedly on environmental exposure to parents and schools.
   Thoughts are cerebral perceptions of external and internal sensory
   events, from which imaginative abstract ideas associated with memories
   of these events can be created. Beliefs on the other hand can arise
   from diverse spiritual exposures or from experimentally verifiable
   thought patterns, both of which have a profound affect on individual
   and collective human behaviour. Some individuals have a passion for
   basing their beliefs on "scientific" thinking while others do not abide
   by this requirement. A fundamental cognitive understanding of our
   thought processes has become a focus of psycho-biological,
   neurological, and molecular-biological studies relating mind
   excitations to specific physical areas within the brain. These studies
   offer the hope of discovering the "scientific" essence of mind
   phenomena and of suggesting novel methods for improving the quality of
   human life at all ages. Relatively simple meditative methods exist for
   controlling thought and memory patterns which lead to learning
   important belief patterns.

Meditative control of thought and memory

   Awareness of one’s mental state is a quintessential requirement for
   improving the thinking, learning, and remembering processes that form
   the basis of our belief systems. Involuntary stray thoughts, however,
   are major impediments to willful control of awareness, but are
   genetically inherent in the human psyche. They often play an important
   role in creative thinking but can also give rise to obsessive
   (semi-conscious) beliefs that cause fatigue, especially if associated
   with unpleasant emotional states. Meditative methods, of which there
   are many, afford an effective means to break the clutch of
   discomforting mindsets. Meditation comprises a mix of intentional and
   non-intentional mental processes that can be correlated gainfully with
   the natural autonomic rhythm of breathing environmental nutrients
   essential to life. A prime intent of meditation is to remove
   disconcerting mindsets by intentionally creating a relaxed state of
   awareness. An effective first step is to focus on the rhythm of one’s
   breathing, until annoying mindsets are submerged via this act of
   concentration. One can then shift, to simply observing one’s natural
   breathing. A troublesome task if the mind is being buffeted by
   emotionally charged feelings! Interrupting and removing discomforting
   mindsets can also be achieved by mantra-like (eyes closed) meditative
   breathing. One focuses rhythmically on an in breath and out breath for
   a sufficient, but not an extended time, which should permit a gradual
   shift into a natural breathing state of relaxed awareness. Very
   individual and not simple tasks, but very rewarding if successful! On
   achieving (eyes open) awareness, one can progress to intentional
   thought tasks that set off a pleasurable meditative flow of mental
   activity. Meditation requires periodic practice in moving smoothly and
   quasi-simultaneously between rhythmic breathing and focus on
   pleasurable tasks. One must guard against drifting into an intensive
   non-flowing mental state that breeds mental fatigue. Meditation is best
   pursued by experimenting with either a visual or verbal flow of
   pleasant thought patterns. Potential creative elements may emerge if
   the flow evolves into a semi-intentional free wheeling sequence linked
   to a novel view of a task. One of the benefits of meditation is its
   ability to induce sleep. One can set a natural base for transition to a
   sleep state, especially when tired, by concentrating solely on the
   rhythm of one’s natural breathing. This should permit a gradual drift
   into an unfocussed flow of pleasant thoughts and ultimately into a
   sleep state. The ability to control thought and memory flow and to
   relax into simple awareness is indicative of successful meditation.
   Overall, meditative exercise serves to improve mental life and, as we
   shall document below, can defer the aging atrophy that results from
   lack of mental exercise.

On Psychobiology of Thought and Memory

   Within the vast spectrum of life forms, the human species possesses a
   unique ability to think and remember. Thinking represents a unique
   interplay of thought and memory, captured by the aphorism: thought
   begets memory, and memory begets thought. Thoughts are mental processes
   that arise either from a complex of direct sensory perceptions or from
   abstract higher-level mental associations. Direct thought perceptions
   are associated with cerebral activity in the outer human neo-cortex and
   in the mid-brain, whereas abstract emotional thoughts are primarily
   associated with activity in the brain stem and thalamus; lower animal
   species do not have a neo-cortex and hence display minor mental
   capability. An omni-present mix of thought and memory patterns reflects
   a pleasurable or troublesome state of mind, depending on one’s ability
   to learn how to control the flow of thinking. Controlling the flow of
   abstract thoughts and memories is a quintessential human asset that
   requires intentional mental effort. Cognitive science studies reveal
   that the ability to learn stems both from specific inherited areas of
   brain structure as well as from environmental experience. In our
   conscious state the natural autonomic flow of mental activity is
   frequently interspersed with a pestering miscellany of non-intentional
   thoughts. The latter, a rather chaotic activity, often prompted by
   emotional instincts, complicates volitional mind flow, engenders mental
   distractions, but plays an important role in human creativity.
   Instinctual moderated free-wheeling streams of consciousness utilize a
   non-intentional mix of states that link the many verbal and visual
   associations characteristic of creative mental states. Recent
   mathematical developments in chaos theory suggest that free associative
   thinking is a random nonlinear mental process from which
   self-organizing activity representative of creativity emerges. One
   relevant aspect of free thinking is that it is less exhausting for the
   mind to wander freely within a forest of ever-changing thoughts than to
   fix on embedded thoughts. Obsessive thought fixation and resulting
   mental blocks are evident sources of psychobiologic mental fatigue.
   Psychological studies of individual and collective behavior have long
   been subjects of extensive efforts to document experimentally the laws
   that govern our behavior. In recent years these studies have begun to
   explore behavior in terms of the cerebral electro-chemical network
   being developed in the cognitive sciences. Related developments in
   pharmacological medications, affecting properties of the cerebral
   electro-chemical network, are currently sparking effective methods for
   modifying human behaviour. (text missing) open psycho-biological
   problem revolves about measuring the physical nature of thought and
   memory excitations generated by structures within the brain. In physics
   the concept of a field suggests an interesting and metaphorically
   related clarification of the problem of measuring mind phenomena.
   Current neuronal research on the molecular structure of the brain and
   its mental properties represents an important step along the road to
   understand how to deal with our mental beliefs about religion and
   ethics.

On the neuronal view of Thought and Memory

   The human body is composed of sensory organs, a central
   neuronal-nervous system, and an autonomic circulatory blood system that
   provides nutrients essential to life. The electro-chemical neuronal
   network within the brain conveys sensory stimuli to a complex of
   cerebral cortical areas from which thought and memory excitations
   originate. Animal and human studies have shown that the act of learning
   initiates growth in the number of dendrite and synaptic constituents of
   cerebral neurons in areas specific to the learning process. This growth
   process appears to be subject to willful control. Distinctive thought
   and memory excitations involve a complex of distinctive neuronal areas.
   Since each area has a distinctive neuronal packing topography, it
   suggests that topography may distinguish these areas as sources and
   receivers of measurable mind excitations. As evidence for this
   suggestion, reentrant and oscillatory neuronal electric firing patterns
   in brain areas have been observed and correlated with memory
   excitations in a number of recent studies. These suggest the
   possibility of using ultra-sensitive (sonar or piezoelectric) spectral
   analysis techniques for physical measurement of the essence of thought
   and memory excitations. Sensory stimulated electro-chemical events are
   propagated throughout a neuronal network at approximately 100 meter per
   second speeds depending on the local topography of the network and on
   whether these signals are of an electrical or a diffusive biochemical
   nature. Differences in the arrival time of such signals from a sensory
   source to different locations in the visual, verbal, etc cortex give
   rise to different thought patterns that help to clarify phantom limb
   and blind sight phenomena. Biochemical and electrical activity,
   associated with neuronal signals, are observable and measurable at
   neuronal synapses. Neuronal electric potentials, measurable as alpha,
   delta, and theta waves by electroencephalograph (EEG) techniques,
   furnish information on cognitive as well as diseased (epileptic) areas
   of the brain. Functional magnetic resonance imagings (FMRI), positron
   emission tomography (PET), as well as optical brain imaging and
   microscopic needle cranial methods, provide information on areas of
   cerebral activity that correlate with different mental excitations. In
   particular, left or right brain activity, associated with analytic or
   artistic abilities, is linked to cortical areas whose locations vary
   markedly from individual to individual. Recent magnetic encephalography
   (MEG) has shown that complex sensory stimuli result in coherent
   electrical oscillations, but it is unclear as to whether these are
   indicative of signaling activity within the neuronal network or of mind
   excitations. A weeklong patch over one eye of a young kitten causes
   dendrite atrophy in its visual cortex and permanent retinal blindness
   in the patched eye. Learning experiments on birds and animals, using
   invasive techniques, indicate an increase of dendrite numbers in
   cortical areas associated with learning. Many recent observations
   appear to show neuronal replication in animals and humans, especially
   in the young, but also at all ages. Studies of areas of neuronal
   atrophy caused by cortical injuries and organic disease have shown that
   mental and physical exercises can invigorate neuron growth in
   neighboring cortical areas. This plasticity of cerebral neuronal
   structures is a major reason for mental and physical exercise at all
   ages. Fast functional magnetic resonance scans and optical brain
   imaging have shown that electro-chemical blood activity in specific
   areas of the cortex is correlated with specific types of thinking and
   learning. Related neurological research on memory imprinting and
   forgetting has led to an awareness of important neurotransmitters and
   receptors, released by electro-chemical processes generated within
   neuronal synapses. A vast body of research on electro-chemical
   activities at dendrite and axonal synapses has led to an era of
   pharmacological chemical development that has had a profound effect on
   medical treatment of mental disorders. Cell research at the molecular
   genetic level, a deeper level of neuronal study, offers further
   promises of correcting many mental and physical diseases.

In Summary

   The developing understanding of the cerebral neuronal network, and of
   the diversity of dendrite structures involved in higher levels of
   conceptual reasoning, is one of the exciting open areas of
   neurobiological research. Current neuronal experiments show that
   learning and physical exercise engender neuronal plasticity by
   increasing dendrite and synaptic growth in different areas of the
   cortex. These observations add credibility to the importance of the
   nurture side of the “nature versus nurture” debate and thus emphasize
   the importance of mental exercises that heed the “use it or lose it”
   paradigm. Increased knowledge of the neuronal structure of the brain
   and of the nature of mind field excitations points a way for the modern
   exercise of the Socratic dictum “Know thyself”. The end of the road is
   not clear but the effort involved in traveling the cognitive science
   road, which leads to methods for control and flow of thoughts and
   memories, merits the journey.

Nature of the mind

   Philosophers and psychologists remain divided about the nature of the
   mind. Some take what is known as the substantial view, and argue that
   the mind is a single entity, perhaps having its base in the brain but
   distinct from it and having an autonomous existence. This view
   ultimately derives from Plato, and was absorbed from him into Christian
   thought. In its most extreme form, the substantial view merges with the
   theological view that the mind is an entity wholly separate from the
   body, in fact a manifestation of the soul, which will survive the
   body's death and return to God, its creator.

   Others take what is known as the functional view, ultimately derived
   from Aristotle, which holds that the mind is a term of convenience for
   a variety of mental functions which have little in common except that
   humans are conscious of their existence. Functionalists tend to argue
   that the attributes which we collectively call the mind are closely
   related to the functions of the brain and can have no autonomous
   existence beyond the brain, nor can they survive its death. In this
   view mind is a subjective manifestation of consciousness: the human
   brain's ability to be aware of its own existence. The concept of the
   mind is therefore a means by which the conscious brain understands its
   own operations.

   If we follow the pantheistic view, Mind is synonymous with Soul, and
   emanates (since it is non-dimensional, or trans-dimensional) from the
   Spirit (the essence that can manifest itself through any level in
   pantheistic hierarchy/ holarchy - as a mind/soul of a single cell (with
   very primitive, elemental consciousness), a human or animal mind/soul
   (with consciousness on a level of organic synergy of an individual
   human or animal), or a (superior) mind/soul with synergetically
   extremely complex and sophisticated consciousness of whole galaxies
   involving all sub-levels). Spirit (essence) manifests as - Soul/Mind.
   And the (non-physical) Soul/Mind is a 'driver' of the body. Therefore,
   the body, including the brain, is just a 'vehicle' for the physical
   world (if we, for example, have a whole planet as a 'body' then its
   brain is the synergetic super-brain that involves all the brains of
   species with a brain on that planet).

History of the philosophy of the mind

   According to Neo-Platonism, nondual Spirit manifests as Soul or Mind.
   Mind is synonymous with Soul, and emanates from the Spirit (the essence
   that can manifest itself through any level in the cosmic hierarchy/
   holarchy, from the mind/soul of a single cell (with prehension – very
   primitive, elemental consciousness), a human or animal mind/soul (with
   consciousness on a level of an individual human/animal), or an
   oversoul, with consciousness of whole galaxies involving all
   sub-levels. And the (non-physical) Soul/Mind is a 'driver' of the body.
   Therefore, the body, including the brain, is just a vehicle for the
   physical world.

   A leading exponent of the substantial view was George Berkeley, an 18th
   century Anglican bishop and philosopher. Berkeley argued that there is
   no such thing as matter and what humans see as the material world is
   nothing but an idea in God's mind, and that therefore the human mind is
   purely a manifestation of the soul or spirit or similar. This type of
   belief is also common in certain types of spiritual non-dualistic
   belief, but outside this field few philosophers take an extreme view
   today. However, the view that the human mind is of a nature or essence
   somehow different from, and higher than, the mere operations of the
   brain, continues to be widely held.

   Berkeley's views were attacked, and in the eyes of many philosophers
   demolished, by T.H. Huxley, a 19th century biologist and disciple of
   Charles Darwin, who agreed that the phenomena of the mind were of a
   unique order, but argued that they can only be explained in reference
   to events in the brain. Huxley drew on a tradition of materialist
   thought in British philosophy dating to Thomas Hobbes, who argued in
   the 17th century that mental events were ultimately physical in nature,
   although with the biological knowledge of his day he could not say what
   their physical basis was. Huxley blended Hobbes with Darwin to produce
   the modern materialist or functional view.

   Huxley's view was reinforced by the steady expansion of knowledge about
   the functions of the human brain. In the 19th century it was not
   possible to say with certainty how the brain carried out such functions
   as memory, emotion, perception and reason. This left the field open for
   substantialists to argue for an autonomous mind, or for a metaphysical
   theory of the mind. But each advance in the study of the brain during
   the 20th century made this harder, since it became more and more
   apparent that all the components of the mind have their origins in the
   functioning of the brain.

   Huxley's rationalism, however, was disturbed in the early 20th century
   by the ideas of Sigmund Freud, who developed a theory of the
   unconscious mind, and argued that those mental processes of which
   humans are subjectively aware are only a small part of their total
   mental activity. Freudianism was in a sense a revival of the
   substantial view of the mind in a secular guise. Although Freud did not
   deny that the mind was a function of the brain, he held the mind has,
   as it were, a mind of its own, of which we are not conscious, which we
   cannot control, and which can be accessed only though psychoanalysis
   (particularly the interpretation of dreams). Freud's theory of the
   unconscious, although impossible to prove empirically, has been widely
   accepted and has greatly influenced the popular understanding of the
   mind.

   More recently, Douglas Hofstadter's 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning book "
   Gödel, Escher, Bach - an eternal Golden Braid", is a tour de force on
   the subject of mind, and how it might arise from the neurology of the
   brain. Amongst other biological and cybernetic phenomena, Hofstadter
   places tangled loops and recursion at the centre of Self,
   Self-awareness, and perception of oneself, and thus at the heart of
   Mind and thinking. Likewise philosopher Ken Wilber posits that Mind is
   the interior dimension of the brain holon. That is, that mind is what a
   brain looks like internally, when it looks at itself.

   Quantum physicist David Bohm had a theory of mind that is most
   comparable to Neo-Platonic theories. "Thought runs you. Thought,
   however, gives false info that you are running it, that you are the one
   who controls thought. Whereas actually thought is the one which
   controls each one of us..."(Thought as a System, D. Bohm, 1992)

Current research

   Stan Franklin has proposed that action selection is the right
   perspective to take in understanding the role and evolution of mind.
   See his page on the action selection paradigm.

   The debate about the nature of the mind is relevant to the development
   of artificial intelligence. If the mind is indeed a thing separate from
   or higher than the functioning of the brain, then hypothetically it
   would be much more difficult to recreate within a machine, if it were
   possible at all. If, on the other hand, the mind is no more than the
   aggregated functions of the brain, then it will be possible to create a
   machine with a recognisable mind (though possibly only with computers
   much different from today's), by simple virtue of the fact that that
   such a machine already exists in the form of the human brain.

   The Mind/Brain/Behaviour Interfaculty Initiative (MBB) at Harvard
   University aims to elucidate the structure, function, evolution,
   development, and pathology of the nervous system in relation to human
   behaviour and mental life. It draws on the departments of psychology,
   neurobiology, neurology, molecular and cellular biology, radiology,
   psychiatry, organismic and evolutionary biology, history of science,
   and linguistics.

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