While sitting in my Year 12 Philosophy class today enjoying the discussion of the brain and mind, I wondered to myself are they the same thing? My friend argues that the two are different and the mind does not exist, yet, even though many philosophers have agreed with my friend's ideas, I would think not.
The human brain is an extraordinary human organ; unlike other parts of the body it acts as a control of our every existence. It continually gains knowledge throughout our entire lives and is something we all take for granted. But, is it a mind? Well, being a lazy person that I am, I Googled the definition of 'mind' which turned out to be this: that which is responsible for one’s thoughts and feelings; the seat of the faculty of reason. It is a definition that I particularly agree with, since it is a sort of generalisation of what we believe the mind is. And, where would we ever begin to think? Our brains of course which then shows us the link between the two. We are always affected by the environment we live in and the people who surround us; thus, giving our brains a chance to learn, think and decide. The brain decides from life experiences, what a person may become by altering the characteristic traits of an animal or in this case us humans! For example, when a particular person annoys you, you may think terrible thoughts of them (depending on his/her extent of cruelty) as this is would be predetermined by your mind in your brain. And, when we do this, we think and is emotional attached to our thoughts therefore giving us a reason to hate or love something or someone. This is why I believe that the mind is a part of the brain and of course it exist as without the element of the mind, we humans would not be able to function as who we are now as we would probably still be like our animalistic ancestors.
The human brain is an extraordinary human organ; unlike other parts of the body it acts as a control of our every existence. It continually gains knowledge throughout our entire lives and is something we all take for granted. But, is it a mind? Well, being a lazy person that I am, I Googled the definition of 'mind' which turned out to be this: that which is responsible for one’s thoughts and feelings; the seat of the faculty of reason. It is a definition that I particularly agree with, since it is a sort of generalisation of what we believe the mind is. And, where would we ever begin to think? Our brains of course which then shows us the link between the two. We are always affected by the environment we live in and the people who surround us; thus, giving our brains a chance to learn, think and decide. The brain decides from life experiences, what a person may become by altering the characteristic traits of an animal or in this case us humans! For example, when a particular person annoys you, you may think terrible thoughts of them (depending on his/her extent of cruelty) as this is would be predetermined by your mind in your brain. And, when we do this, we think and is emotional attached to our thoughts therefore giving us a reason to hate or love something or someone. This is why I believe that the mind is a part of the brain and of course it exist as without the element of the mind, we humans would not be able to function as who we are now as we would probably still be like our animalistic ancestors.
Thoughts..?
-L
"Mind" is a human word born of human misunderstanding. You're right in saying that there is no separate entity that constitutes a 'mind', but I would go as far to say that the "mind" and the brain are one and the same.
ReplyDeleteWhat separates us from, say, bacteria is conscious thought - we do not act on animalistic whim, we have the virtue of presupposing our actions.
Almost every animal has this in some form. Let's say... a lion. It can crawl in the bushes, located its prey and strike to kill all because of the virtues of free thought.
This is because of that smashing thing called evolution. Organisms began with extreme simplicity. They were basically just slugs that roamed around, sustained itself with food and reproduced. Eventually, through gradual mutation, their brains began to understand that there are certain advantages to predetermined thought, though it could hardly be called 'thought' at the time. For example, one slug might be born with a tendency to avoid the sun and thus not dry out and die. This slugs tendencies would then carry on to its offspring, which would carry on to its offspring and so on so forth until all the other slugs have died away because they didn't have the advantage that the Sun-Avoiding slug has.
That would be what you call the birth of the 'mind', as you know it. And when it's explained like that you see that it is really just a manipulation of genes, a way to prolong life without any apparent changes in the slugs physique or speed or whatever.
So. Now the slug has a mind, but its mind only has one (or very few) functions. Go on another thousand generations and another slug with an advantageous mutation will pop up. This one has the smarts to burrow deep underground when the sun's blazing and moisture itself up. The process repeats itself and now we have a new era of slugs with a slightly advanced mindset than the previous one which just avoided the sun and didn't burrow underground like the current slugs.
Now, fast forward a couple of million, billion, trillion gazillion years and you have humans with a crazy mind capable of doing heaps of shit. This is where I've been getting at; all the "mind" is is an accumulation of advantageous mutations to the brain. The mind IS the brain, built within the very fabrics of the brain... If you get me.
Anyway, hope that was long enough.