Premium Essay

What Is Mind

In:

Submitted By tmosley
Words 1179
Pages 5
PHI130 10-17-2011

Abstract
In the present paper, the issue of mind is discussed in the framework of mind/body problem. While in the times of Aristotle and Plato it was named differently and explained through objects materiality and soul divinity, the modern perception of the same correlation was emphasized by Descartes as body/mind problem. In the present paper, the essence of the problem is outlined in the context of one of the modern philosophies of mind, meaning physicalism. The main aims of this essay is to identify the corner stone of physicalist concept, its main supporting and opposing arguments, and distinguish which position is the strongest one and understand the reason why.
Key words: physicalism, body/mind problem, knowledge, exclusion, consciousness.

What is mind?
In the history of human thought, there were various dilemmas which the brightest minds of their times were trying to solve and which remained enigmas until our times. The mind/body problem is one of those issues. While, in times of Aristotle and Plato, it was named differently and explained through the objects materiality and soul divinity, the modern perception of the same correlation was shaped by Descartes as body/mind problem. In the present paper, the essence of the problem is explained in the context of one of the modern philosophies of mind, meaning physicalism. The main aims of this essay is to identify the corner stone of physicalist concept, its main supporting and opposing arguments, and distinguish which argument is the strongest and why.
First of all, it is worth to identify what Descartes meant by body/mind problem. According to his argument, mental phenomena or results of mind activity are usually different from the physical phenomena and human body’s perception of them and itself (Jaworski, 2011). Subsequently, the problem is that the connection between mind’s

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

What Is Mind?

...Mbogo .W.A. (Moi) The course number: The date of submission: The instructor’s name: WHAT IS MIND? The mind is a complex element in a living organism that assists to understand the world around them, be able to interpret experiences and internalize ideas pertaining reality in general. Dualism and physicalism are two philosophical entities that attempt to explain reality with regards to the mind and body relationship. Physicalism dimension is normally taken to be synonymous with materialism. The two entities perceive the relationship between the mind and body from different perspectives which brings about their differences. Dualism for instance, which is derived from the concept “duo” , meaning two, holds the view of the mind/body relationship from a duality perspective. It sees the two entities as being different from each other. Dualists believe that the mind and the body cannot be reduced to be the same thing because doing so will ultimately lead to the deviation of the true meaning of reality. Their focus is aimed at critical analysis of the perspectives that normally bring the differences between the mind and the body. The body is a physical reality. The brain which is part of the body is not equivalent to the mind. Physical manipulation of the brain can be achieved to attain its well-being. For example, surgery can be done to the brain if it is malfunctioning to enhance its efficiency. On the contrary, complex processes which are not physical in nature...

Words: 1230 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

What Is Mind?

...Shawna Potratz 08/04/2013 PHI-103 Richard Mohline What is Mind? To believe that seeing and touching is the only real truth is to believe that there is no such thing as an idea. For some people this is possible, but in order to make something real it must exist as an idea or a thought first. There are many arguments to picking a side of either Physicalism or Dualism and many people only have one opinion and then close their mind to other options. Only by understanding both sides can someone make a decision as to whether they are a physicalist or dualist. However, Dualism is the only real truth, for without an idea or thought; there can be no physical object to obtain. Some would say that everything started with a thought. It is clear that truth in reality is often something you can see or touch or taste, but what about feelings? How can someone feel love or have admiration for one’s beauty if none of those emotions can be touched or tasted. As humans we are built to feel and think. Some might say that religion plays a big role in one’s decision, if so then what of Atheism. They are human to; they feel pain and emotion all the same. They also think and idealize the same as someone of religious belief; therefore, religion cannot apply in such arguments because some great philosophers’ had none. As a child we are taught what things are and what to call them. The name of an object started as an idea. If your mother was to teach you that a pen was the only writing...

Words: 848 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

What Is the Human Mind?

...how he wanted to retire four years earlier, but how he had been begged to stay. He states how he never considered himself as being worthy enough oto lead a country, and then goes on and gives his thoughts and opinions about many issues in the government. looking at the way he had led the country for the previous eight years. George washington was a great man always with the country's best interest at heart and mind and he only gave his honest opinion regarding many subjects such as, the importance of national union and the constitution. He also spoke of the evils and dangers of the political parties and debt, and stressed the importance of religion and morality of our government. No man left a more dignified farewell. Many people fought and died to make this country a nation. George washington was right in the middle of that, and he pressed the importance of unity in a nation and warns against anybody dividing it. This country is one country, not the east or the west, the north or the south. Eeverybody needs each other and if it is all divided it cannot accomplish what it could as whole nation. Seperation and dividion would only bring arguments...

Words: 289 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

What Comes to Mind

...When Two Become One (What Comes to Mind Reflection Paper) One science wizard says, “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.” A brilliant saying that reflects to the reality of our thinking. Just like combining two indifferent things into one comprehension. Who would have thought that there could be psychology in marketing at the first base? Of course we could not immediately observe It but through excavating it we would appreciate its importance. It was the first day of class this year that help us prevent from mind-bugging school work. A seminar entitled “What Comes to Mind?” gave us an opportunity to be relieve somehow and made our mind refreshed. I could say that this is not new for my perplexed mind given the fact that I am business course student. That’s why I never got excited. I’m a bit well-educated from these because I have a Marketing subject plus I already took up a Psychology subject. These two may come from different category which is the first is business and the latter is science. Psychologists invest their time studying mental functions and behaviors. Marketers invest their time communicating product and service values to customers. Beneath these broad strokes of practice are patterns, intertwined and working together for greater impact. Marketers can learn a great deal from psychologists, especially when looking at buying habits, brand emotions and the psychological influence what we see, hear and smell...

Words: 534 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

To What Extent Is Theory of Mind Innate?

...To what extent is Theory of Mind innate? Critically discuss with reference to genetic, social and cultural evidence. Theory of mind refers to an individual’s ability to understand the mental states of others (Baron-Cohen, 1989b). According to Buttelmann et al. (2008) over the years; psychological practice has seen an increase in research, debating whether theory of mind is innate. This apparent increase stems from controversial standard false-belief tasks and its influence on a person’s ability to have an operative theory of mind (Chandler, Fritz & Hala 1989). The connotations of these standard false-belief tasks act as an indicator for specific age boundaries, in which children are meant to start attributing mental states to others, through their understanding of false belief (Perner and Ruffman, 2005; Fodor, 1992; Mitchell,1996). The implications of these standard false-belief tasks will steer this discussion to focus on the extent at which theory of mind can be considered as innate with reference to genetic, social and cultural evidence. According to Whiten, (1993 pg. 3) “a theory of mind remains one of the quintessential abilities that makes us human” .Yet prior to Baron-Cohen’s (1989a) study, the traditional view held by most child developmental psychologists, (Piaget, 1983) was based on the idea that, any understanding of what goes on in another person’s mind has to be a calculated and difficult thing (Appleton and Reddy, 1996). Hence, in order to work...

Words: 3406 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

What Is The Effect Of Manipulating Wolfgang's Mind

...In the Adventure of the German Student, Wolfgang goes to Paris just as the French Revolution was breaking out. In the chaos, Wolfgang commits a horrible atrocity, he sleeps with a dead body. The reason for his vile act was that he was tricked into it by Satan. For some time, Satan had been for some time manipulating the mind of Wolfgang. As Wolfgang had been studying in Germany, he became very solitude and “his health was impaired, his imagination diseased” (Irving 1). This reveals that Lucifer had been warping Wolfgang’s mind for sometime. Wolfgang was under Satan’s thumb. Furthermore, Satan reanimated a decapitated woman who was earlier sent to the guillotine. Having no knowledge of her death, Wolfgang seduces the beautiful, young lady...

Words: 335 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

What Would Be to Your Mind an Ideal Education System?

...What would be to your mind an ideal education system? A country is weak or powerful, which depends on its education system. Realizing the important role of education in life, Ho Chi Minh, in one of his speeches on education, said: “For the sake of ten years’ benefits, plant trees; for the sake of one hundred years’ benefits, educate people.” An ideal education system must try to carry out the following aims. First, training human personality both mentally and physically is important. It is said that a sound mind is in a healthy body. The morality and the quality of a man must be the main concern of the Department of Education. Second, schools must be connected closely with families and society. Schools must always encourage pupils’ families to cooperate in educating their children. Third, the practical side of education must be emphasized. An ideal education system must not be entirely theoretical; on the contrary, theory must be linked up with practice. Besides the cultivation of knowledge for young generations, ideal education must train them to have great capacity and skills so that they are ready to make steady progress in life. Fourth, society is more and more developed; therefore, textbooks and curriculums must be often supplemented in accordance with present and future needs. Fifth, training and tempering a passionate love for one’s country in every citizen’s heart, ready to serve their country in peacetime and to fight courageously to protect their fatherland...

Words: 328 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

What Does Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Mean

...Mary and Dr. Mierzwiak have had a relationship that she did not remember. Mary had decided to have her memories erased meaning that she would be able to live her life without remembering that she almost broke up a marriage. However between 1:18:34 and 1:21:23 in the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry) Mary finds out what has occurred since she is reliving the past without knowing it and Alice Mierzwiak lets her know that she can have her husband since she doesn’t desire him anymore. This scene takes place before sunrise meaning it is extremely dark which is what everyone's minds would be as if they didn’t have memories to look back on. Throughout the movie, whenever Joel is having a memory taken away from him they start...

Words: 352 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

What Factors Does a Sociologist Bear in Mind When Choosing His/Her Research Method?

...What factors does a Sociologist bear in mind when choosing his/her research method? There are many factors that a Sociologist considers when choosing their research methods. Some of these include Practical, Ethical and Theoretical Issues. These issues need to be considered carefully. Sociologists examine the world, see a problem or interesting pattern, and set out to study it. They use research methods to design a study, or even perhaps a detailed, systematic, scientific method for conducting research and obtaining data. Planning the research design is a key step in any sociological study. In addition to this, a mix of methods is frequently used to satisfy different types of research questions within the same topic. This is know as Triangulation. When entering a particular social environment, a researcher must be careful. There are times to remain anonymous and times to be overt. There are times to conduct interviews and times to simply observe. Some participants need to be thoroughly informed; others should not know they are being observed. If a researcher walked into a coffee shop and told the employees they would be observed as part of a study on work efficiency, the intimidated workers might not behave naturally. Researchers need to choose topics for which it is possible to develop and conduct research. For example, if a specific group needs to be studied in relation to a particular topic, the researcher must be able to gain access to them. For example, there is the...

Words: 800 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Travel Is Often Said to Influence People by Making Them More Open to Other Cultures and New Ideas. Does Travel Broaden the Mind? What Are Some After Effects of an Extended Period of Travel?

...Nowadays, people pay more attention to travel as a way to relax. When we start to think about travel, we always know that a new experience lies ahead of us. After we have experienced certain aspects of traveling, we must ask what we will obtain from travel. Does travel broaden the mind? And what are the effects of an extended period of traveling. This, and more, will be answered in the following paragraphs. Travel is not only a way to satisfy your visual, but also a way of broadening the minds of travelers. Of course, there are a great deal of people who choose travel to enjoy nature, spend time with family, have a chance to relax, and other reasons. However, traveling can also influence their thinking. There are a lot of people who agree that after traveling people can get new ideas from ancient culture, architecture design, and locals. There was a research study which was conducted by Raleigh International, which is an organization that helps people to develop new skills, friendship and make a difference in communities and environments across the world. The experiment was done with more than a hundred formal Raleigh ventures from disadvantaged background. Raleigh found that mixing young people from different social background increased aspirations and interest in education and learning. By mixing the different cultures and social backgrounds together it was seen that 81% of the people increased their friendship with people from different backgrounds. 94%...

Words: 557 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Write a 700- to 1,050-Word Paper Using This and Other Articles as a Resource. Because Communications Must Be Designed with the Audience in Mind, Answer the Following Questions: • What Are Some Considerations to Remember

...Individual Assignment 1.1 | Misunderstanding 1 (M1) | Misunderstanding 2 (M2) | Who was the sender? | I, Ardra English, was the sender. | My supervisor was the sender. | Who was the receiver? | My co-worker was the receiver. | I was the receiver. | What was the message? | I was school shopping this weekend, and I noticed there are four new bus shelters at the corner of Forest Lane and Abrams Road. Prepare the schedules, and I will post them immediately. | Are there any time changes that affect the schedules on the pylons? | What channel was used to send the message? | Face-to-face, verbal communication. | E-mail | What was the misunderstanding that occurred? | He did not want to create the schedules. | She did not specifically ask for the changes, and I did not realize that she wanted me to create the schedules for the pylons. | How could the misunderstanding have been avoided? | There are no established standard operating procedures for creating and installing the schedules. | I feel that my supervisor should have been more specific about her needs. I did not know that she wanted me to create the schedules, and submit them to her. | In the first misunderstanding, I learned that I should have listened to why the co-worker did not want to create the schedule. From his experience as a graphic artist, he waited until the manager in the Passenger Amenities Department sent notice to install the schedule. From my experience in customer service, when there...

Words: 461 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Personal Identity

...Williams Philosophy 180 9.18.12 Personal Identity. What am I? A mind or a body? Between both my mental and physical realities my true self is found in my mind. An intangible but highly influential, very private set of thoughts construct the perception of how I allow the physical world to experience my being. My body is a physical representation of the collective effort of thoughts and experiences of my mind. In essence our body serves as a vessel or shell for our very soul. The question, “what am I?” could also be “who are you?” What constitutes an individual’s identity? I believe between the two options of physical and mental realities that my prolonged mental consciousness gives me my identity. My memories are who I am. Without my memories I am just a body a tabula rasa all over again. This idea of memory serving as our identity can be seen with the example of Alzheimer’s patients. Alzheimer’s is an autoimmune disease that even with today’s modern medicine is still misunderstood. The patient suffering AD experiences a slow wipe out of their memory. Even though, still unclear to how or why this happens to millions of people worldwide we are able to see first hand years of life disappear into nowhere and how destructive this is to families, loved ones, and an individuals identity. They exist physically as a shell and nothing more. Their connection and relationship to the physical world is of no use without the mind. For the record I am by no means stating that an AD patient’s...

Words: 2652 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

All in

...Summary: What is ingrained in your head? Whatever is ingrained in your head is what comes out when you face struggles, fears, frustrations. Come and learn how to love God with all your mind! Series: All In Scripture: Matthew 22:34-22:40 (add scripture) Intro: In the middle of a wedding ceremony, a jewelry store manager exchanged rings with his soon-to-be spouse. As he slipped the ring onto his bride’s finger, he said, “With this ring—we guarantee a full refund if the customer is not completely satisfied.” His sales pitch was so deeply ingrained in his mind that the words came out automatically. What’s ingrained in your mind? “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things” (Phil. 4:8). (Kent Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2004, 135) We learned last week that all in begins as an issue of the heart. We will see this week that after it affects the heart it inhabits the head. Matthew 22:37 “He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Let me challenge you with this truth. If the gospel is not being ingrained in your mind it probably hasn’t been engraved on your heart. Hebrews 10:16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws on their hearts...

Words: 1318 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Business

...fighting your subconscious mind. Perhaps it is time to let your "other mind," your subconscious mind, in on the secret. I was impressed at how quickly “The Secret” took off in the recent past. Mostly everyone I talked to had an opportunity to see the movie and instantly feel a sense of hope that if they could just change the way the see things, “things” would be different in their life. The movie depicts the secret as something simple and something ancient which is not tied to any particular sect or stratification and is available to everyone. While I agree that it is simple and IS available to everyone theoretically, it seems like just watching the movie and from then on experiencing abundance and joy every moment from then on is something...well, something you might see in a movie. What is missing? There is more to change then simply realizing that you have become a magnet for what you don’t want. To simply say “stop thinking this way and start thinking that way” for most of us it a tall order. The reason it is a tall order is that we have taught ourselves how life is in some relative way and changing reality is not something we do very often. It is not as though we don’t “want” to change, but let’s face it, if we don’t believe it will happen or we don’t deserve it will, then “wanting” is not enough. So to answer the question, “what is missing?” will more than likely bring us to what do we really (really, really) believe? That does not ask the question what do we “think” we actually...

Words: 1867 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Svesv

...Take home assignment: The topic is  What is ren? What is the importance of ren in Confucianism? you have to cite the bibliography at the end of the paper, follow MLA or APA format from the beginning to the end. Be consistent. Don’t start with one format and end with the other . Below is a template/ sample of a philosophical answer Philosophy Essay Template/General Outline for Critical Answers You do not need a formal “Introduction”. You can just immediately say what you are going to do in the paper. The Basic Structure [Paragraph 1] [First one or two sentence(s) restating the question as your thesis] [Section 1: Summary] [Say what you are going to do in this section of your paper.] *Now state each step in the philosopher’s argument in your own words.+ [Assert the reasons the philosopher gives in the text for his/her conclusion.] [Back up that assertion with a quotation or two.] [Explain why the quotation(s) you used are important.] [If you have done the above for each of the philosopher’s premises in the argument, you can now restate the conclusion of the argument.] [Section 2: Critical analysis/critique of the argument] [Analyze each premise of the argument you summarized.] [Explanation] [Is the premise true or false?] [Explain why you think so.] [Give an example to support this.] [Explain your example.] [Clarify your explanation.] [Consider possible objections the philosopher could have to particular criticisms you made above.] [Conclude with a sentence...

Words: 2231 - Pages: 9