Philosophy of Mind
"The unexamined life is not worth living." --Socrates at his trial.
Introduction
Curiosity, creativity, and intelligence are all linked. Have you ever seen an intelligent person who wasn't curious? Or a creative person who
wasn't intelligent? The urge to examine comes from intelligence and curiosity. And what better thing to examine than life itself? However, as
Socrates himself (via Plato) was occasionally to explain, the life of a philsosopher was not for everyone.
Sometimes it's said that if one likes to eat sausage, perhaps he ought not to see it being made. The consumer of sausage, then, might not
want to know what's going on behind the scenes. Is this valid thinking? Perhaps it is for many. For the more curious among us, perhaps not.
Mind is brain structure and processes. At any particular time, most of mind is unconscious. All of our experience is based on what we are
conscious of. So we might be considered to be "consumers" of our conscious brain processes. And just as the consumer of sausage might not
want to know what goes on behind the scenes, the consumer of mind experience may not want to know what's going on unconsciously. However,
a natural born philosopher may have enough curiosity to overcome that natural reluctance.
Psychology
Mind began to become a topic of science in the 19th century when psychologists such as William James, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Jung began
to study mental phenomena. Analytical tools such as dream interpretation and ink blot observations were used to illuminate the unconscious, and
William James suggested that certain chemical substances could assist in more direct access to the unconscious. Among Freud's major contributions
to the field was the recognition that most of mental phenomena is unconscious. Jung put forward the idea of a "collective unconscious" which is
the common structure of mind which all humans share.
(to be continued)
Plato, Yale Art Museum.
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