Mind: Difference between revisions
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The word ''''mind'''', | The word ''''mind'''', an abstract noun, refers to no observable physical entity, but to a faculty of human beings associated with their ability to think, broadly defined, and relatedly, to their ability to experience events of reality non-consciously, consciously, and self-consciously. | ||
In verbal forms, 'mind' also relates to the ability of humans to think, characterized in different senses of the verb by different aspects of the thinking process. Such | In verbal forms, 'mind' also relates to the ability of humans to think, characterized in different senses of the verb by different aspects of the thinking process. Such verbal expressions as "mind what I tell you", "mind your own business", "minded the babysitter", "mind your manners", "he doesn't mind taking out the garbage" — typically refer to some aspect of thinking, or to a requirement for thinking, as indicated through paraphrasing the utterance in terms of thinking. "Mind what I tell you", for example, paraphrases to "Think about what I tell you, and think about the consequences of not doing so", in both expressions the precise aspect of 'thinking', or requirement for 'thinking', given by the context embedding the utterance. "Mind the icy walkway", "think about how you walk on the icy path". | ||
The verbal forms of 'mind' long predated the noun form. Before the sixteenth century, people did not consider themselves as possessing minds, and 'mind' was used exclusively as a verb, 'minding', 'to mind' (Szasz 1996). | The verbal forms of 'mind' long predated the noun form. Before the sixteenth century, people did not consider themselves as possessing minds, and 'mind' was used exclusively as a verb, 'minding', 'to mind' (Szasz 1996). | ||
Nominalization of verbs, typically creating an abstract entity, reifying the action/activity into a 'thing', appears as a natural tendency in humans, exemplified | Nominalization of verbs, typically creating an abstract entity, reifying the action/activity of the verb into a 'thing', appears as a natural tendency in humans, exemplified in such nominalizations/reifications as ''thinking'' to ''thought'', ''living'' to ''life'', ''experiencing consciously'' to ''consciousness''. In the case of nominalizing ''minding'' to ''mind'', studies of the nature and meaning of mind often stray from considerations of the nature and meaning of the reality of the action, becoming abstracted into a non-physically observable, non-existent entity that performs the action. | ||
Mind is a product of our thinking, not its underpinning. And 'to think' cannot be defined in words that do not themselves ultimately require 'thinking' to define them. 'Think' is a [[Semantic primes|semantic primitive]]. | Mind is a product of our thinking, not its underpinning. And 'to think' cannot be defined in words that do not themselves ultimately require the word 'thinking' to define them non-circulary. | ||
'Think' is a [[Semantic primes|semantic primitive]], lacking non-circular lexicographical definition, a universal semantic primitive found in all the world's languages, whose meaning a child learns while learning to speak the language of its society, from the way its society uses the word, used as part of a base set of words that allow all other words in the lexicon to be defined. | |||
The status of 'thinking' as a semantic primitive, however, does not preclude philosophical, [[Cognitive science|cognitive]] and [[Neuroscience|neuroscientific]], [[Linguistics|linguistic]], [[Anthropology|anthropological]], and [[artificial intelligence]] interdisciplinary investigation of its evolutionary origins, its characteristics, its mechanisms of production, its scope, its levels of complexity, and its impact on the future of mankind. | |||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
Revision as of 12:44, 10 January 2011
The word 'mind', an abstract noun, refers to no observable physical entity, but to a faculty of human beings associated with their ability to think, broadly defined, and relatedly, to their ability to experience events of reality non-consciously, consciously, and self-consciously.
In verbal forms, 'mind' also relates to the ability of humans to think, characterized in different senses of the verb by different aspects of the thinking process. Such verbal expressions as "mind what I tell you", "mind your own business", "minded the babysitter", "mind your manners", "he doesn't mind taking out the garbage" — typically refer to some aspect of thinking, or to a requirement for thinking, as indicated through paraphrasing the utterance in terms of thinking. "Mind what I tell you", for example, paraphrases to "Think about what I tell you, and think about the consequences of not doing so", in both expressions the precise aspect of 'thinking', or requirement for 'thinking', given by the context embedding the utterance. "Mind the icy walkway", "think about how you walk on the icy path".
The verbal forms of 'mind' long predated the noun form. Before the sixteenth century, people did not consider themselves as possessing minds, and 'mind' was used exclusively as a verb, 'minding', 'to mind' (Szasz 1996).
Nominalization of verbs, typically creating an abstract entity, reifying the action/activity of the verb into a 'thing', appears as a natural tendency in humans, exemplified in such nominalizations/reifications as thinking to thought, living to life, experiencing consciously to consciousness. In the case of nominalizing minding to mind, studies of the nature and meaning of mind often stray from considerations of the nature and meaning of the reality of the action, becoming abstracted into a non-physically observable, non-existent entity that performs the action.
Mind is a product of our thinking, not its underpinning. And 'to think' cannot be defined in words that do not themselves ultimately require the word 'thinking' to define them non-circulary.
'Think' is a semantic primitive, lacking non-circular lexicographical definition, a universal semantic primitive found in all the world's languages, whose meaning a child learns while learning to speak the language of its society, from the way its society uses the word, used as part of a base set of words that allow all other words in the lexicon to be defined.
The status of 'thinking' as a semantic primitive, however, does not preclude philosophical, cognitive and neuroscientific, linguistic, anthropological, and artificial intelligence interdisciplinary investigation of its evolutionary origins, its characteristics, its mechanisms of production, its scope, its levels of complexity, and its impact on the future of mankind.
Notes
References
- Szasz, Thomas. (1996) The Meaning of Mind: Language, Morality, and Neuroscience. Westport, CT: Praeger. | Google Books preview. | Thomas Szasz: Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York. | Citizendium article: Thomas Szasz. | Books by Thomas Szasz.