Mind

The word 'mind', as an abstract noun, refers to no observable physical entity, but to a faculty of human beings that enables them to think, broadly defined, and to experience events of reality non-consciously, consciously, and self-consciously.

In verbal forms, 'mind' refers to human behaviors characterized by such phrases as "mind your own business", "minded the babysitter", "mind your manners", "he doesn't mind taking out the garbage" — typically referring to observable behaviors in contrast to the unobservable entity of the nominalized form, mind.

Thus, though 'mind' today is used both as noun and verb, before the sixteenth century, people had souls, not minds, and 'mind' was used as a verb, 'minding', 'to mind' (Szasz 1996).

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.

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