The subject and study of Mind has been very intriguing to me that I thought I should share my curiosity and the very thought of it with my readers. I had started scribbling down the flow of that thought when Wikipedia beckoned to me that I should give it a hearing.
A mind according to Wikipedia which I am quoting copiously in this column “is the set of cognitive faculties that enables consciousness, perception, thinking, judgment, and memory—a characteristic of humans, but which also may apply to other life forms. A lengthy tradition of inquiries in philosophy, religion, psychology and cognitive science has sought to develop an understanding of what a mind is and what its distinguishing properties are. The main question regarding the nature of mind is its relation to the physical brain and nervous system – a question which is often framed as the mind–body problem, which considers whether mind is somehow separate from physical existence (dualism and idealism, or the mind is identical with the brain or some activity of the brain, deriving from and/or reducible to physical phenomena such as neuronal activity (physicalism). Another question concerns which types of beings are capable of having minds, for example whether mind is exclusive to humans, possessed also by some or all animals, by all living things, or whether mind can also be a property of some types of man-made machines.
Whatever its relation to the physical body it is generally agreed that mind is that which enables a being to have subjective awareness and intentionality towards their environment, to perceive and respond to stimuli with some kind of agency, and to have consciousness, including thinking and feeling.
Important philosophers of mind include Mulla Sadra, Plato, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, Martin Heidegger, John Searle, Daniel Dennett, Thomas Nagel, David Chalmers and many others. The description and definition is also a part of psychology where psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and William James have developed influential theories about the nature of the human mind. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries the field of cognitive science emerged and developed many varied approaches to the description of mind and its related phenomena. The possibility of non-human minds is also explored in the field of artificial intelligence, which works closely in relation with cybernetics and information theory to understand the ways in which human mental phenomena can be replicated by non-biological machines.
The concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different cultural and religious traditions. Some see mind as a property exclusive to humans whereas others ascribe properties of mind to non-living entities (e.g. pan-psychism and animism), to animals and to deities. Some of the earliest recorded speculations linked mind (sometimes described as identical with soul or spirit) to theories concerning both life after death, and cosmological and natural order, for example in the doctrines of Zoroaster, the Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient Greek, Indian and, later, Islamic and medieval European philosophers.
The attributes that make up the mind is 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 it as mind.
In popular usage, mind is frequently synonymous with thought: the private conversation with ourselves that we carry on “inside our heads.” Thus we “make up our minds,” “change our minds” or are “of two minds” about something. One of the key attributes of the mind in this sense is that it is a private sphere to which no one but the owner has access. No one else can “know our mind.” They can only interpret what we consciously or unconsciously communicate.”
It is this last paragraph that shall form the basis of our essay today. It is the need to constantly mind our mind that has tickled my fancy and provoked the entire gamut of this column.
We talk of ‘mind your tongue’, ‘mind your speech’, ‘mind your dress’, ‘mind your manners’, ‘mind the way you conduct yourself at an interview’ and several other instances and occasions that call for caution and consciousness.
But hardly do we talk of minding the mind which is the controller of all the other situations that we are called upon to mind. Mind is a very strong phenomenon. It is the summation of thought process and it is that part of us that dictates and directs our actions and inactions. It directs our immediate responses as well as long drawn reactions to things and situations.
It is very important that we mind our mind. It is like saying that we should be in control of our faculties at all times. We should mind and control what our mind conjectures and oozes out. And the way we can exercise that control effectively is by minding the mind itself.
It is rather complex and complicated. A mind that gets out of control is on its way to lunacy. Or in a milder form, it could be on its way to irrationalities and irresponsibility
Our mind is at work every split second, or so it is supposed to be. But on occasions when one allows the mind to get out of hand one gets into acts best described as mindless. We have mindless atrocities such as mindless [needless and irrational] murder, mindless stealing like silly stealing when a thief goes into a supermarket and attempts to steal a whole refrigerator by lifting up the monster on his head and tries to walk out of the store!.
The need to mind the mind comes to the fore when one is going through challenging times. In the middle of a nasty and messy divorce, in the middle of bankruptcy, in the middle of the failure of a major university examination or at the loss of a lucrative job or position, such situations, delicate and harrowing require a very determined minding of the mind! Any little slip can trigger a snap!
Extreme and extraordinary care is needed to ensure that we do not lose our mind. Almost on daily basis is one confronted with circumstances that can stretch the mind to its elastic limit. Even minor interaction, depending on the characters and situations involved can task the management of one’s mind.
It is the way the mind is minded that determines our reaction in moments of disappointment, betrayal, unwarranted provocation, especially from most unexpected quarters. We have seen reactions such as throwing a baby into fire during extreme anger, or wives slashing the manhood of their husbands in a fit of fiendish fury.
Suicide is the ultimate when mind is lost to control!
The pen is the tongue of the hand,the silent utterer of words for the eyes…Henry Beecher
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