2. MIND
Is the complex of cognitive faculties
mental processes that enables:
1. Consciousness – quality/state of being aware
2. Thinking – act of thinking that includes:
Cognition - awareness
Sentience – ability to feel, perceive, be
conscious
Imagination – ability of mind creativity
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3. 3. Reasoning
capacity of human being to make sense of things
Establish and verify facts
Change or justify practices, beliefs, & institutions
4. Perception
is the organization, identification, and interpretation of
sensory information in order to fabricate a mental
representation through the process of transduction,
which sensors in the body transform signals from the
environment into encoded neural signals.
5. judgment
Evaluation of evidence
Making of decision
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4. Process of Transduction
refers to changing physical energy into electrical
signals (neural impulses) that can make their way
to the brain.
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5. Nature of Mind
- is its relation to the physical brain and nervous
system
- Is somehow separate from physical existence
- deriving from and reducible to physical
phenomena
- is identical with the brain or some activity of the
brain
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6. Whatever its relation to the physical body it is
generally agreed that mind is that which enables
a being to:
1. Subjective awareness and intentionality
towards their environment,
2. perceive and respond to stimuli with some
kind of agency, and
3. consciousness, including thinking and
feeling.
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7. Important philosophers of mind
include :
Plato - Greek Philosopher, presented ideas thru
dramatic dialogues
Descartes – French philosopher & mathematician.
He concluded that everything was open to doubt
except conscious experience.
Leibniz- German rationalist, he devised a method
of calculus
Kant – German philosopher, he argued that reason
is the means by which the phenomena of
experience are translated to understanding.
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8. influential theories about the nature of
the human mind developed by:
Siegmund Freud = Neurologist &
Psychoanalyst
Id, ego, super-ego are three parts of psychic apparatus
William James = Philosopher &
Psychologists,
“the meaning of truth”
“The will to believe”
?The sentiment of rationality in mind”
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9. Attributes of Mind:
"higher" intellectual functions constitute mind,
particularly reason and memory
various rational and emotional states cannot be so
separated
it is a private sphere to which no one but the
owner has access
can only interpret what we consciously or
unconsciously communicate
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10. Mental Faculties:
"higher" cognitive function and the analysis of
thinking processes is a part of cognitive psychology
connected with our capacity to make and use tools to
understand cause and effect
engage in problem solving, reasoning and making
decisions
allows human beings to make sense of things in the
world, and to represent and interpret them in ways
that are significant, or which accord with their needs,
attachments, goals, commitments, plans, ends,
desires
involves the symbolic or semiotic mediation of ideas
or data, as when we form concepts
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11. Mental content
are those items that are thought of as being "in"
the mind, and capable of being formed and
manipulated by mental processes and faculties
- Examples:
- Thoughts – idea/mental picture
- concepts – abstract idea/ general notion
- memories – person’s power to remember things
- Emotions – any particular feelings
- percepts – something that is perceived
- Intentions – the act or fact of intending
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12. BRAIN & MIND
Brain, or encephalon (Greek for "in the head")
control center of the central nervous system
responsible for thought
located in the head,
protected by the skull and
close to the primary sensory apparatus of vision,
hearing, equilibrioception, taste and olfaction
all vertebrates have a brain, most invertebrates have
either a centralized brain or collections of individual
ganglia
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13. - Primitive animals such as sponges do not
have a brain at all.
- Brains can be extremely complex.
- For example; the human brain contains
more than 100 billion neurons, each
linked to as many as 10,000 others
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14. Part of the nervous system
Sensory system
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15. Relationship between the brain and
the mind:
physical brain matter and the mind is the impact
physical alterations to the brain have on the mind,
such as with traumatic brain injury and psychoactive
drug use
relationship between mental activity and brain
activity
drugs influence cognition, and
neural correlates of consciousness.
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16. Anatomy/Physiology
A. Neuron- highly specialized for the processing
and transmission of cellular signals
1. Basic component of the nervous sy.
2. Composed of cell body, axon & dendrites
a. Cell body = center of metabolism
b. Axon =long fibers > conduct impulses away from the
cell body; usually 1 axon for each cell body
c. Dendrites = short, unsheathed fibers> receive nerve
impulses> transmit to cell body
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17. 3 major philosophical schools of
thought of MIND:
Dualism holds that the mind exists independently
of the brain
materialism holds that mental phenomena are
identical to neuronal phenomena
idealism holds that only mental phenomena exist
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18. Philosophy & Psychology of MIND:
the branch of philosophy & psychology that
studies the nature of the mind, mental events,
mental functions, mental properties,
consciousness and their relationship to the
physical body.
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19. SCIENCE of mind:
Psychology is the scientific study of human
behavior, mental functioning, and experience
Psychology involves the scientific study of mental
processes
such as perception, cognition, emotion,
personality, as well as environmental
influences, such as social and cultural
influences, and interpersonal relationships, in
order to devise theories of human behaviour.
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20. Psychology also refers to the application of such
knowledge to various spheres of human activity,
including problems of individuals' daily lives and
the treatment of mental health problems.
Noology the study of thought. As both an
academic and applied discipline,
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21. Mental health
• "A state of emotional and psychological well-
being in which an individual is able to use his
or her cognitive and emotional capabilities,
function in society, and meet the ordinary
demands of everyday life." According to the
World Health Organization (WHO)
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22. Mind/Body Perspectives:
• Monism is the position that mind and body
are not physiologically and ontologically
distinct kinds of entities
• According to Spinoza's dual-aspect theory,
mind and body are two aspects of an
underlying reality which he variously
described as "Nature" or "God".
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23. “When we talk about understanding, surely it
Takes place only when the mind listens
Completely --- the mind being your
Heart, your nerves, your ears ==
When you give your whole
Attention to it.”
-Jiddu Krishnamurti
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