The concept of mind (play /ˈmnd/) is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent thought. Common attributes of mind include perception, reason, imagination, memory, emotion, attention, and a capacity for communication. A rich set of unconscious processes are also included in many modern characterizations of mind.

Theories of mind and its function are numerous. Earliest recorded speculations are from the likes of Zoroaster, the Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient Greek, Indian and, later, Islamic and medieval European philosophers. Pre-modern understandings of the mind, such as the neoplatonic "nous" saw it as an aspect of the soul, in the sense of being both divine and immortal, linking human thinking with the un-changing ordering principle of the cosmos itself.

Which attributes make up the mind is much debated. Some psychologists 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 from the mind as such. Others argue that various rational and emotional states cannot be so separated, that they are of the same nature and origin, and should therefore be considered all part of what we call the mind.




The original meaning of Old English gemynd was the faculty of memory, not of thought in general. Hence call to mind, come to mind, keep in mind, to have mind of, etc. Old English had other words to express "mind", such as hyge "mind, spirit".

The generalization of mind to include all mental faculties, thought, volition, feeling and memory, gradually develops over the 14th and 15th centuries.[1]

The meaning of "memory" is shared with Old Norse, which has munr. The word is originally from a PIE verbal root *men-, meaning "to think, remember", whence also Latin mens "mind", Sanskrit manas "mind" and Greek μένος "mind, courage, anger".

Mental faculties

Broadly speaking, mental faculties are the various functions of the mind, or things the mind can "do".

Thought is a mental activity which allows human beings to make sense of things in the world, and to represent and interpret them in ways that are significant, or which accord with their needs, attachments, goals, commitments, plans, ends, desires, etc. Thinking involves the symbolic or semantic mediation of ideas or data, as when we form concepts, engage in problem solving, reasoning and making decisions. Words that refer to similar concepts and processes include deliberation, cognition, ideation, discourse and imagination.

Thinking is sometimes described as a "higher" cognitive function and the analysis of thinking processes is a part of cognitive psychology. It is also deeply connected with our capacity to make and use tools; to understand cause and effect; to recognize patterns of significance; to comprehend and disclose unique contexts of experience or activity; and to respond to the world in a meaningful way.

Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The subject of memory is treated in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), directed by Michel Gondry.

Memory is the ability to preserve, retain, and subsequently recall, knowledge, information or experience. Although memory has traditionally been a persistent theme in philosophy, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also saw the study of memory emerge as a subject of inquiry within the paradigms of cognitive psychology. In recent decades, it has become one of the pillars of a new branch of science called cognitive neuroscience, a marriage between cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

The subject of memory has also been addressed in highly sophisticated ways in classic works of 20th century literature, notably in the novel of Marcel Proust, and in popular films, e.g. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Imagination is the activity of generating or evoking novel situations, images, ideas or other qualia in the mind. It is a characteristically subjective activity, rather than a direct or passive experience. The term is technically used in psychology for the process of reviving in the mind percepts of objects formerly given in sense perception. Since this use of the term conflicts with that of ordinary language, some psychologists have preferred to describe this process as "imaging" or "imagery" or to speak of it as "reproductive" as opposed to "productive" or "constructive" imagination. Things that are imagined are said to be seen in the "mind's eye". Among the many practical functions of imagination are the ability to project possible futures (or histories), to "see" things from another's perspective, and to change the way something is perceived, including to make decisions to respond to, or enact, what is imagined.

Consciousness in mammals (this includes humans) is an aspect of the mind generally thought to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, sentience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment. It is a subject of much research in philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science. Some philosophers divide consciousness into phenomenal consciousness, which is subjective experience itself, and access consciousness, which refers to the global availability of information to processing systems in the brain.[2] Phenomenal consciousness has many different experienced qualities, often referred to as qualia. Phenomenal consciousness is usually consciousness of something or about something, a property known as intentionality in philosophy of mind.

Mental content

Mental contents are those items which are thought of as being "in" the mind, and capable of being formed and manipulated by mental processes and faculties. Examples include thoughts, concepts, memories, emotions, percepts and intentions. Philosophical theories of mental content include internalism, externalism, representationalism and intentionality.

Brain and mind


Understanding the relationship between the brain and the mind — mind-body problem is one of the central issues in the history of philosophy — is a challenging problem both philosophically and scientifically.[3] There are three major philosophical schools of thought concerning the answer: dualism, materialism, and idealism. Dualism holds that the mind exists independently of the brain;[4] materialism holds that mental phenomena are identical to neuronal phenomena;[5] and idealism holds that only mental phenomena exist.[5]



Through most of history many philosophers found it inconceivable that cognition could be implemented by a physical substance such as brain tissue (that is neurons and synapses).[7] Philosophers such as Patricia Churchland posit that the drug-mind interaction is indicative of an intimate connection between the brain and the mind, not that the two are the same entity.[8] Descartes, who thought extensively about mind-brain relationships, found it possible to explain reflexes and other simple behaviors in mechanistic terms, although he did not believe that complex thought, and language in particular, could be explained by reference to the physical brain alone.[9]

Philosophy of mind


Dualism and monism are the two major schools of thought that attempt to resolve the mind-body problem. Dualism is the position that mind and body are in some way separate from each other. It can be traced back to Plato,[11] Aristotle[12][13][14] and the Samkhya and Yoga schools of Hindu philosophy,[15] but it was most precisely formulated by René Descartes in the 17th century.[16] Substance dualists argue that the mind is an independently existing substance, whereas Property dualists maintain that the mind is a group of independent properties that emerge from and cannot be reduced to the brain, but that it is not a distinct substance.[17]

The 20th century philosopher Martin Heidegger suggested that subjective experience and activity (i.e. the "mind") cannot be made sense of in terms of Cartesian "substances" that bear "properties" at all (whether the mind itself is thought of as a distinct, separate kind of substance or not). This is because the nature of subjective, qualitative experience is incoherent in terms of – or semantically incommensurable with the concept of – substances that bear properties. This is a fundamentally ontological argument.[18]

Mind/body perspectives

Monism is the position that mind and body are not physiologically and ontologically distinct kinds of entities. This view was first advocated in Western Philosophy by Parmenides in the 5th Century BC and was later espoused by the 17th Century rationalist Baruch Spinoza.[19] According to Spinoza's dual-aspect theory, mind and body are two aspects of an underlying reality which he variously described as "Nature" or "God".



Neutral monists adhere to the position that perceived things in the world can be regarded as either physical or mental depending on whether one is interested in their relationship to other things in the world or their relationship to the perceiver. For example, a red spot on a wall is physical in its dependence on the wall and the pigment of which it is made, but it is mental in so far as its perceived redness depends on the workings of the visual system. Unlike dual-aspect theory, neutral monism does not posit a more fundamental substance of which mind and body are aspects.


Many modern philosophers of mind adopt either a reductive or non-reductive physicalist position, maintaining in their different ways that the mind is not something separate from the body.[20] These approaches have been particularly influential in the sciences, e.g. in the fields of sociobiology, computer science, evolutionary psychology and the various neurosciences.[21][22][23][24] Other philosophers, however, adopt a non-physicalist position which challenges the notion that the mind is a purely physical construct.

Reductive physicalists assert that all mental states and properties will eventually be explained by scientific accounts of physiological processes and states.[25][26][27]


Continued neuroscientific progress has helped to clarify some of these issues. However, they are far from having been resolved, and modern philosophers of mind continue to ask how (if at all) the subjective qualities and the intentionality (aboutness) of mental states and properties can be explained in naturalistic terms.[30][31]

Other perspectives

Jose M.R. Delgado writes, "Aristotelian thought has permeated most Occidental philosophical system until modern times, and the classification of man's function as vegetative, sensitive, and rational is still useful. In present popular usage, soul and mind are not clearly differentiated and some people, more or less consciously, still feel that the soul, and perhaps the mind, may enter or leave the body as independent entities." [32]

Science of mind



Psychology differs from the other social sciences (e.g., anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology) due to its focus on experimentation at the scale of the individual, or individuals in small groups as opposed to large groups, institutions or societies. Historically, psychology differed from biology and neuroscience in that it was primarily concerned with mind rather than brain. Modern psychological science incorporates physiological and neurological processes into its conceptions of perception, cognition, behaviour, and mental disorders.

Evolutionary psychology

Evolutionary psychology (EP) is an approach within psychology that examines psychological traits — such as memory, perception, or language — from a Darwinian evolutionary perspective. It seeks to explain how many human psychological traits are evolved adaptations, that is, the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection. Adaptationist thinking about physiological mechanisms, such as the heart, lungs, and immune system, is common in evolutionary biology. Evolutionary psychology applies the same thinking to psychology.

Evolutionary psychologists argue that much of human behavior originates as psychological adaptations that evolved to solve recurrent problems in human ancestral environments.[33]

Evolutionary history of the human mind

The evolution of human intelligence refers to a set of theories that attempt to explain how human intelligence has evolved. The question is closely tied to the evolution of the human brain, and to the emergence of human language.

The timeline of human evolution spans some 7 million years, from the separation of the Pan genus until the emergence of behavioral modernity by 50,000 years ago. Of this timeline, the first 3 million years concern Sahelanthropus, the following 2 million concern Australopithecus, while the final 2 million span the history of actual human species (the Paleolithic).

Many traits of human intelligence, such as empathy, theory of mind, mourning, ritual, and the use of symbols and tools, are already apparent in great apes although in lesser sophistication than in humans.

There is a debate between supporters of the idea of a sudden emergence of intelligence, or "Great leap forward" and those of a gradual or continuum hypothesis.

Theories of the evolution of intelligence include:

  • Robin Dunbar's social brain hypothesis[34]
  • Geoffrey Miller's sexual selection hypothesis[35]
  • The ecological dominance-social competition (EDSC) [36] explained by Mark V. Flinn, David C. Geary and Carol V. Ward based mainly on work by Richard D. Alexander.
  • The idea of intelligence as a signal of good health and resistance to disease.
  • The Group selection theory contends that organism characteristics that provide benefits to a group (clan, tribe, or larger population) can evolve despite individual disadvantages such as those cited above.
  • The idea that intelligence is connected with nutrition, and thereby with status[37] A higher IQ could be a signal that an individual comes from and lives in a physical and social environment where nutrition levels are high, and vice versa.

Mental health




Animal intelligence


Artificial intelligence

In 1950 Alan M. Turing published "Computing machinery and intelligence" in Mind, in which he proposed that machines could be tested for intelligence using questions and answers. This process is now named the Turing Test. The term Artificial Intelligence (AI) was first used by John McCarthy who considered it to mean "the science and engineering of making intelligent machines".[38] It can also refer to intelligence as exhibited by an artificial (man-made, non-natural, manufactured) entity. AI is studied in overlapping fields of computer science, psychology, neuroscience and engineering, dealing with intelligent behavior, learning and adaptation and usually developed using customized machines or computers.



Religious perspectives




Buddhism posits that there is actually no distinct thing as a human being, who merely consists of five aggregates, or skandhas. According to Buddhist philosopher Dharmakirti, mind is defined as "that which is clarity and cognizes"—where 'clarity' refers to the formless nature of the mind and 'cognizes' to the function of mind, namely that every mind must cognize an object.[39] The Indian philosopher-sage Sri Aurobindo attempted to unite the Eastern and Western psychological traditions with his integral psychology, as have many philosophers and New religious movements.


Other perspectives


Parapsychology is the scientific study of certain types of paranormal phenomena, or of phenomena which appear to be paranormal.,[40] for instance precognition, telekinesis and telepathy. The term is based on the Greek para (beside/beyond), psyche (soul/mind), and logos (account/explanation) and was coined by psychologist Max Dessoir in or before 1889.[41] J. B. Rhine later popularized "parapsychology" as a replacement for the earlier term "psychical research", during a shift in methodologies which brought experimental methods to the study of psychic phenomena.[41] Parapsychology is controversial, with many scientists believing that psychic abilities have not been demonstrated to exist.[42][43][44][45][46] The status of parapsychology as a science has also been disputed,[47] with many scientists regarding the discipline as pseudoscience.[48][49][50]



See also

Portal icon Philosophy portal
Portal icon Mind and Brain portal


  1. ^ OED; etymonline.com
  2. ^ Ned Block: On a Confusion about a Function of Consciousness" in: The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1995.
  3. ^ Patricia Smith Churchland, Neurophilosophy: toward a unified science of the mind-brain, MIT Press, 1989
  4. ^ Hart, W. D. (1997): ‘Dualism’, pp. 265-7 in S. Guttenplan (ed.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind, Blackwell
  5. ^ a b A.R. Lacey, A Dictionary of Philosophy, 1996
  6. ^ Boake and Diller, 2005
  7. ^ Neurophilosophy, Ch. 6
  8. ^ Neurophilosophy, Ch. 8
  9. ^ Descartes, Description of the human body
  11. ^ Plato (1995). E.A. Duke, W.F. Hicken, W.S.M. Nicoll, D.B. Robinson, J.C.G. Strachan. ed. Phaedo. Clarendon Press. 
  12. ^ Robinson, H. (1983): ‘Aristotelian dualism’, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 1, 123–44.
  15. ^ Sri Swami Sivananda. "Sankhya:Hindu philosophy: The Sankhya". http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Sankhya/id/23117. 
  16. ^ Descartes, René (1998). Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy. Hacket Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87220-421-9. 
  17. ^ Hart, W.D. (1996) "Dualism", in Samuel Guttenplan (org) A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind, Blackwell, Oxford, 265–7.
  18. ^ Hubert Dreyfus, "Critique of Descartes I" (recorded lecture), University of California at Berkeley, Sept. 18, 2007.
  19. ^ Spinoza, Baruch (1670) Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (A Theologico-Political Treatise).
  20. ^ a b Kim, J., "Mind-Body Problem", Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Ted Honderich (ed.). Oxford:Oxford University Press. 1995.
  21. ^ Pinel, J. Psychobiology, (1990) Prentice Hall, Inc. ISBN 8815071741
  22. ^ LeDoux, J. (2002) The Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are, New York: Viking Penguin. ISBN 8870787958
  23. ^ Russell, Stuart J.; Norvig, Peter (2003), Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (2nd ed.), Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-790395-2, http://aima.cs.berkeley.edu/ 
  24. ^ Dawkins, R. The Selfish Gene (1976) Oxford:Oxford University Press. ISBN
  25. ^ Churchland, Patricia (1986). Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain.. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-03116-7. 
  26. ^ Churchland, Paul (1981). "Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes". Journal of Philosophy (Journal of Philosophy, Inc.) 78 (2): 67–90. doi:10.2307/2025900. JSTOR 2025900. 
  27. ^ Smart, J.J.C. (1956). "Sensations and Brain Processes". Philosophical Review. 
  28. ^ Donald Davidson (1980). Essays on Actions and Events. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-924627-0. 
  29. ^ Putnam, Hilary (1967). "Psychological Predicates", in W. H. Capitan and D. D. Merrill, eds., Art, Mind and Religion Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
  30. ^ Dennett, Daniel (1998). The intentional stance. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-54053-3. 
  31. ^ Searle, John (2001). Intentionality. A Paper on the Philosophy of Mind. Frankfurt a. M.: Nachdr. Suhrkamp. ISBN 3-518-28556-4. 
  32. ^ James M.R. Delgado (1969). Physical control of the mind; towards a psycho civilized society. Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, Toronto citebook. p. 25. 
  33. ^ Confer, Easton, Fleischman, Goetz, Lewis, Perilloux & Buss, 2010; Buss, 2005; Durrant & Ellis, 2003; Pinker, 2002; Tooby & Cosmides, 2005
  34. ^ The Social Brain Hypothesis
  35. ^ Miller. The Mating Mind. ISBN 0805857494. 
  36. ^ "Flinn, M. V., Geary, D. C., & Ward, C. V. (2005). Ecological dominance, social competition, and coalitionary arms races: Why humans evolved extraordinary intelligence". http://web.missouri.edu/~gearyd/Flinnetal2005.pdf. Retrieved 2007-05-05. 
  37. ^ "'Enhanced nutrition of offspring as a crucial factor for the evolution of intelligence on land'". http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0306987704000416. 
  38. ^ What is Artificial Intelligence? by John McCarthy Stanford University
  39. ^ Gyatso, Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Understanding the Mind: The Nature and Power of the Mind, Tharpa Publications (2nd. ed., 1997) ISBN 978-0-948006-78-4
  40. ^ Parapsychological Association website, Glossary of Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Retrieved February 10, 2007
  41. ^ a b Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology edited by J. Gordon Melton Gale Research, ISBN 0-8103-5487-X
  43. ^ Wheeler, J. A. (1979). "Point of View: Drive the Pseudos Out...". Skeptical Inquirer 3: 12–13. 
  44. ^ Kurtz, P. (1978). "Is Parapsychology a Science?". Skeptical Inquirer 3: 14–32. 
  45. ^ Druckman, D. and Swets, J. A. eds. (1988). Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories and Techniques. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.. p. 22. ISBN 0-309-07465-7. 
  46. ^ Reuters (5 September 2003). "Telepathy gets academic in Sweden". CNN. http://edition.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/09/05/offbeat.telepathy.reut/index.html. Retrieved 9 March 2009. "Despite decades of experimental research ... there is still no proof that gifts such as telepathy and the ability to see the future exist, mainstream scientists say." 
  47. ^ Flew, Antony (1982). "Parapsychology: Science or Pseudoscience?". In Grim, Patrick. Philosophy of Science and the Occult. 

External links

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.


Look at other dictionaries:

  • Mind — • Explores the term in relation to consciousness, matter, and mechanism Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Mind     Mind     † …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • mind — [mīnd] n. [ME mynde < OE (ge)mynd, memory < IE base * men , to think > Gr menos, spirit, force, L mens, mind] 1. memory; recollection or remembrance [to bring to mind a story] 2. what one thinks; opinion [speak your mind] 3. a) that… …   English World dictionary

  • Mind — (m[imac]nd), n. [AS. mynd, gemynd; akin to OHG. minna memory, love, G. minne love, Dan. minde mind, memory, remembrance, consent, vote, Sw. minne memory, Icel. minni, Goth. gamunds, L. mens, mentis, mind, Gr. me nos, Skr. manas mind, man to think …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • mind — ► NOUN 1) the faculty of consciousness and thought. 2) a person s intellect or memory. 3) a person identified with their intellectual faculties. 4) a person s attention or will. ► VERB 1) be distressed or annoyed by; object to. 2) …   English terms dictionary

  • Mind — (m[imac]nd), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Minded}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Minding}.] [AS. myndian, gemynd[=i]an to remember. See {Mind}, n.] 1. To fix the mind or thoughts on; to regard with attention; to treat as of consequence; to consider; to heed; to mark; …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Mind X — (* 29. September 1972 als André Forrer in Bern) ist ein Schweizer Techno DJ und Musikproduzent, der vorwiegend Trance auflegt und produziert. Mind X …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • mind — [n1] intelligence apperception, attention, brain*, brainpower, brains*, capacity, cognizance, conception, consciousness, creativity, faculty, function, genius, head, imagination, ingenuity, instinct, intellect, intellectual, intellectuality,… …   New thesaurus

  • mind — [maɪnd] noun MARKETING 1. front of mind if a brand or company is front of mind, people think of it as a possible choice when buying a particular type of product: • An email newsletter will keep your brand front of mind. • Pirelli is trying to… …   Financial and business terms

  • mind# — mind n 1 *memory, remembrance, recollection, reminiscence, souvenir 2 Mind, intellect, soul, psyche, brain, intelligence, wit are comparable when they mean the sum total of powers, often felt as a distinct entity, by means of which each… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • Mind-X — (* 29. September 1972 als André Forrer in Bern) ist ein Schweizer Techno DJ und Musikproduzent, der Trance und House auflegt und produziert …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Mind — es una revista británica que publica artículos de filosofía en la tradición analítica. La revista actualmente es publicada por la Oxford University Press en nombre de la Mind Association. Fue fundada por Alexander Bain en 1876, con George Croom… …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”
