Mind | Psychology, Philosophy & Neuroscience

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class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/mind#ref284342">Common assumptions among theories of mind</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref284343"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/topic/mind#ref284343">Disputed questions</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mind/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/mind">Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="mb-30 tlr-related-questions"> <div class="text-gray-900 p-5 pb-0 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-15"> Related Questions </div> <ul> <li class="link-gray-900 mb-15"><a class="" href="/question/What-is-human-intelligence">What is human intelligence?</a> </li> <li class="link-gray-900 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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mind/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn btn-sm border-2 btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 module-spacing js-inline-ai-ask-button p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Key People: </dt> <dd><a href="/biography/Alexander-Bain-Scottish-philosopher" topicid="49314">Alexander Bain</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Related Topics: </dt> <dd><a href="/topic/philosophy-of-mind" topicid="383556">philosophy of mind</a></dd> <dd><a href="/science/human-intelligence-psychology" topicid="289766">human intelligence</a></dd> <dd><a href="/science/memory-psychology" topicid="374487">memory</a></dd> <dd><a href="/science/attention" topicid="42134">attention</a></dd> <dd><a href="/science/psychology" topicid="481700">psychology</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/mind"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref236243"></span>mind</strong>, in the Western tradition, the complex of faculties involved in perceiving, remembering, considering, evaluating, and deciding. Mind is in some sense reflected in such occurrences as sensations, perceptions, emotions, memory, desires, various types of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/reason" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">reasoning</a>, motives, choices, traits of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/personality" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">personality</a>, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/unconscious" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">unconscious</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">A brief treatment of mind follows. The subject of mind is treated in a number of articles. For a philosophical treatment of Western <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="conceptions" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conceptions" data-type="MW">conceptions</a>, <em>see</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy-of-mind" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">mind, philosophy of</a>. For scientific treatment of the so-called mental faculties, <em>see</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/human-intelligence-psychology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">intelligence</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/animal-learning" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">animal learning</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/learning-theory" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">learning theory</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/memory-psychology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">memory</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/perception" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">perception</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/thought" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">thought</a>. For treatment of Eastern conceptions, in the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="context" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context" data-type="MW">context</a> of the respective philosophical traditions, <em>see</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Buddhism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Buddhism</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hinduism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Hinduism</a>; etc.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">To the extent that mind is <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="manifested" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifested" data-type="MW">manifested</a> in observable phenomena, it has frequently been regarded as a peculiarly <span id="ref236244"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-being" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">human</a> possession. Some theories, however, posit the existence of mind in other animals besides human beings. One theory regards mind as a universal property of matter. According to another view, there may be superhuman minds or intelligences, or a single absolute mind, a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="transcendent" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transcendent" data-type="MW">transcendent</a> intelligence.</p><a class="link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-read-more-module" href="/science/time/Time-in-20th-century-philosophy-of-biology-and-philosophy-of-mind#ref368386" data-link-module-iframe-link=""> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/92/41492-004-B3BF20CB/Alfred-North-Whitehead.jpg" alt="Alfred North Whitehead" class="rounded-sm mr-15" width="70" /> <div class="line-clamp clamp-5"> <div class="module-title bg-navy-dark">More From Britannica</div> <div class="font-weight-semi-bold mt-5">time: Time in 20th-century philosophy of biology and philosophy of mind</div> </div> </a><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h2"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref284342"><h2 class="h1">Common assumptions among theories of mind</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Several assumptions are indispensible to any discussion of the concept of mind. First is the assumption of <span id="ref236245"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/thought" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">thought</a> or thinking. If there were no evidence of thought in the world, mind would have little or no meaning. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/recognition-memory" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">recognition</a> of this fact throughout history accounts for the development of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="diverse" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diverse" data-type="MW">diverse</a> theories of mind. It may be supposed that such words as “thought” or “thinking” cannot, because of their own <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ambiguity" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambiguity" data-type="MW">ambiguity</a>, help to define the sphere of mind. But whatever the relation of thinking to <span id="ref236246"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/human-sensory-reception" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">sensing</a>, thinking seems to involve more—for almost all observers—than a mere reception of impressions from without. This seems to be the opinion of those who make thinking a consequence of sensing, as well as of those who regard thought as independent of sense. For both, thinking goes beyond sensing, either as an elaboration of the materials of sense or as an <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="apprehension" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apprehension" data-type="MW">apprehension</a> of objects that are totally beyond the reach of the senses.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The second assumption that seems to be a root common to all conceptions of mind is that of <span id="ref236247"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/knowledge" class="md-crosslink ">knowledge</a> or knowing. This may be questioned on the ground that, if there were <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/sensation" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">sensation</a> without any form of thought, judgment, or reasoning, there would be at least a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="rudimentary" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rudimentary" data-type="MW">rudimentary</a> form of knowledge—some degree of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/consciousness" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">consciousness</a> or awareness by one thing or another. If one grants the point of this objection, it nevertheless seems true that the distinction between truth and falsity and the difference between knowledge, error, and ignorance or between knowledge, belief, and opinion do not apply to sensations in the total absence of thought. Any understanding of knowledge that involves these distinctions seems to imply mind for the same reason that it implies thought. There is a further <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="implication" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implication" data-type="MW">implication</a> of mind in the fact of self-knowledge. Sensing may be awareness of an object, and to this extent it may be a kind of knowing, but it has never been observed that the senses can sense or be aware of themselves.</p><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Thought seems to be not only reflective but reflexive, that is, able to consider itself, to define the nature of thinking, and to develop theories of mind. This fact about thought—its reflexivity—also seems to be a common element in all the meanings of “mind.” It is sometimes referred to as “the reflexivity of the intellect,” as “the reflexive power of the understanding,” as “the ability of the understanding to reflect upon its own acts,” or as “self-consciousness.” Whatever the phrasing, a world without <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/self" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">self-consciousness</a> or self-knowledge would be a world in which the traditional <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="conception" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conception" data-type="MW">conception</a> of mind would probably not have arisen.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The third assumption is that of purpose or <span id="ref236248"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/intention-psychology" class="md-crosslink ">intention</a>, of planning a course of action with foreknowledge of its goal or of working in any other way toward a desired and foreseen objective. As in the case of sensitivity, the phenomena of desire do not, without further qualification, indicate the realm of mind. According to the theory of natural desire, for example, the natural tendencies of even inanimate and insensitive things are expressions of desire. But it is not in that sense of desire that the assumption of purpose or intention is here taken as evidence of mind.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=august-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">It is rather on the level of the behaviour of living things that purpose seems to require a factor over and above the senses, limited as they are to present appearances. It cannot be found in the passions, which have the same limitation as the senses, for unless they are checked they tend toward immediate emotional discharge. That factor, called for by the direction of conduct to future ends, is either an element common to all meanings of “mind” or is at least an element associated with mind. It is sometimes called the faculty of will—rational desire or the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="intellectual" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intellectual" data-type="MW">intellectual</a> appetite. Sometimes it is treated as the act of willing, which, along with thinking, is one of the two major activities of mind or understanding; and sometimes purposiveness is regarded as the very essence of mentality.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h3"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref284343"><h2 class="h1">Disputed questions</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">These assumptions—thought, knowledge or self-knowledge, and purpose—seem to be common to all theories of mind. More than that, they seem to be assumptions that require the development of the conception. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/conflict-psychology" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">conflict</a> of theories concerning what the human mind is, what structure it has, what parts belong to it, and what whole it belongs to does not <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="comprise" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comprise" data-type="MW">comprise</a> the entire range of controversy on the subject. Yet enough is common to all theories of mind to permit certain other questions to be formulated: How does the mind operate? How does it do whatever is its work, and with what <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="intrinsic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intrinsic" data-type="MW">intrinsic</a> excellences or defects? What is the relation of mind to matter, to bodily organs, to material conditions, or of one mind to another (<em>see</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mind-body-dualism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">mind–body dualism</a>)? Is mind a common possession of men and animals, or is whatever might be called mind in animals distinctly different from the human mind? Are there minds or a mind in existence apart from man and the whole world of corporeal life? What are the limits of so-called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/artificial-intelligence" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">artificial intelligence</a>, the capacity of machines to perform functions generally associated with mind?</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD10 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The intelligibility of the positions taken in the disputes of these issues depends to some degree on the divergent conceptions of the human mind from which they stem. The conclusions achieved in such fields as theory of knowledge (<em>see</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/epistemology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">epistemology</a>), <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="metaphysics" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphysics" data-type="MW">metaphysics</a>, logic, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ethics" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethics" data-type="MW">ethics</a>, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy-of-religion" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">philosophy of religion</a> are all relevant to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">philosophy</a> of mind; and its conclusions, in turn, have important <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="implications" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implications" data-type="MW">implications</a> for those fields. Moreover, this <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="reciprocity" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reciprocity" data-type="MW">reciprocity</a> applies as well to its relations to such <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="empirical" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empirical" data-type="MW">empirical</a> <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="disciplines" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disciplines" data-type="MW">disciplines</a> as neurology, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/psychology" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">psychology</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/sociology" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">sociology</a>, and history.</p><span class="marker MOD10 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="md-signature font-12">This article was most recently revised and updated by <a href="/editor/Brian-Duignan/6469">Brian Duignan</a>.</span><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-simplify-root"></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":1,"pageId":383523,"pageLength":1106,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-134/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.134.9"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-134/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.134.9' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"A","adLeg":"A","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"LARGE","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":true,"hasAiTopQuestions":false,"hasSimplifyButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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