Where Is My Mind? And What Is It? | For the Love of Wisdom Entry 4
Theories of Mind from the Philosophy of Mind
Welcome to the third entry of For the Love of Wisdom: An Ever-Deepening Introduction to Philosophy. This is my digital, dynamic introduction to philosophy. I’m calling it ‘dynamic’ because you’ll be able to interact with the posts, leave feedback, ask clarifying questions, and shape the form and content of future entries through your feedback.
I’ve been studying philosophy for a long time and in this series I’m going to introduce you to the field and eventually drag you into the deep-end. It’s going to be great!
As we saw in entry 3, ‘the mind’ is a sub-topic in the branch of philosophy known as metaphysics (or ‘first philosophy’). Here’s the brief description of the mind-body sub-topic from entry 3:
Mind-Body
The mind-body relation—or the mind-body problem—has grown into it’s own well established sub-field of philosophy called the philosophy of mind. Is there such thing as a ‘mind’ that’s distinct from the physical brain? Do we have souls? If we have an immaterial aspect to our being, how do the physical and the immaterial interact? What’s the nature of consciousness and how can we explain phenomenal facts of experience if we are wholly physical beings? Can a machine ever experience consciousness? What’s the nature of animal consciousness? Can I survive the death of my body? Etc.
In this entry I’d like to take you just a little deeper into the mind-body sub-topic by quickly introducing you to different theories of mind. Now today we call this sub-discipline ‘the philosophy of mind’ but we may just as easily call it ‘noology’, from the Greek nous, meaning mind. I really wish we would call it noology! I would love to be a noologist. But a cruel twist of fate has given us the ‘philosophy of mind’ instead. The study of the mind and the operations of the soul ( (ψυχή psuché) used to be called psychology (soul-ology!) but has since become a bastardized science that mostly denies the souls existence. Anyways, lets get on with some theories of mind! What is it? Well, there are several theories.
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Mind-Brain Identity Theory
Mind-Brain Identity theories argue that the processes of the ‘mind’ just are processes of the brain. So mental states like thoughts, beliefs, desires, and other mental goings-on are just brain states. There is no immaterial ‘self’ or immaterial aspect to one’s being. Careful identity theorists resist saying that the mind is the brain, but physicalist identity theorists hold that there is nothing over and above your brain states, so there is no room for anything like a mind that is not identical with the brain. They would acknowledge that the two words are often used in distinct ways, but that really they are, or ought to be, referring to the same thing: the physical brain.