Themind is that whichthinks,feels,perceives,imagines,remembers, andwills. It covers the totality ofmental phenomena, including bothconscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances, andunconscious processes, which can influence an individual without intention or awareness. The mind plays a central role in most aspects of human life, but its exact nature is disputed. Some characterizations focus on internal aspects, saying that the mind transforms information and is not directly accessible to outside observers. Others stress its relation to outward conduct, understandingmental phenomena as dispositions to engage in observable behavior.
Themind–body problem is the challenge of explaining the relation between matter and mind. Traditionally, mind and matter were often thought of as distinctsubstances that could exist independently from one another. The dominant philosophical position since the 20th century has beenphysicalism, which says that everything is material, meaning that minds are certain aspects or features of some material objects. The evolutionary history of the mind is tied to the development ofnervous systems, which led to the formation ofbrains. As brains became more complex, the number and capacity of mental functions increased with particular brain areas dedicated to specific mental functions. Individual human minds also develop over time as they learn from experience and pass through psychological stages in the process of aging. Some people are affected bymental disorders, in which certain mental capacities do not function as they should.
It is widely accepted that at least somenon-humananimals have some form of mind, but it is controversial to which animals this applies. The topic ofartificial minds poses similar challenges and theorists discuss the possibility and consequences of creating them using computers.
The mind is the totality of psychological phenomena and capacities, encompassing bothconscious andunconscious states. The termmind is sometimes used in a narrow meaning to refer only to cognitive functions associated withperception,reasoning,awareness, andmemory. In a broader sense, it also includes processes likefeeling,motivation, andbehavior.[1] The precise definition of mind is disputed. While it is generally accepted that some non-human animals also have minds, there is no agreement on where exactly the boundary lies.[2] Despite these disputes, there is wide agreement that the mind plays a central role in most aspects of human life as the seat of consciousness, emotions, thoughts, and sense of personal identity.[3] Various fields of inquiry study the mind; the main ones includepsychology,cognitive science,neuroscience, andphilosophy of mind.[4]
The wordspsyche andmentality are usually used as synonyms ofmind.[5] They are often employed in overlapping ways with the termssoul,spirit,cognition,intellect,intelligence, andbrain, but their meanings are not exactly the same. Some religions understand the soul as an independent entity that constitutes the immaterial essence of human beings, is of divine origin, survives bodily death, and isimmortal.[6] The wordspirit has various additional meanings not directly associated with mind, such asa vital principle animating living beings or asupernatural being inhabiting objects or places.[7] Cognition encompasses certain types of mental processes in whichknowledge is acquired andinformation is processed.[8] The intellect is one mental capacity responsible for thought, reasoning, and understanding[9] and is closely related to intelligence as the ability to acquire, understand, and apply knowledge.[10] The brain is the physical organ responsible for most or all mental functions.[11]
The modern English wordmind originates from theOld English wordgemynd, meaning "memory". This term gave rise to theMiddle English wordsmind(e),münd(e), andmend(e), resulting in a slow expansion of meaning to cover all mental capacities. The original meaning is preserved in expressions likecall to mind andkeep in mind.Cognates include theOld High Germangimunt, theGothicgamunds, theancient Greekμένος, theLatinmens, and theSanskritmanas.[12][a]
The mind encompasses many phenomena, including perception, memory,thought,imagination, motivation,emotion,attention,learning, and consciousness.[14] Perception is the process of interpreting and organizingsensory information to become acquainted with the environment. This information is acquired throughsense organs receptive to various types ofphysical stimuli, which correspond to different forms of perception, such asvision,hearing,touch,smell, andtaste. The sensory information received serves as raw data that is filtered and processed to actively constitute the experience of the world and the objects within it. This complex process underlying perceptual experience is shaped by many factors, including the individual's pastexperiences, cultural background, beliefs, knowledge, and expectations.[15]
Memory is the mechanism of storing and retrieving information.[16]Episodic memory handles information about specific past events in one's life and makes this information available in the present. When a person remembers what they had for dinner yesterday, they employ episodic memory.Semantic memory handles general knowledge about the world that is not tied to any specific episodes. When a person recalls that the capital of Japan is Tokyo, they usually employ semantic memory to access this general information without remembering the specific instance when they learned it.Procedural memory is memory of how to do things, such as riding a bicycle or playing a musical instrument.[17] Another distinction is betweenshort-term memory, which holds information for brief periods, usually with the purpose of completing specific cognitive tasks, andlong-term memory, which can store information for extended periods, potentially lasting a lifetime.[18]
Thinking involves the processing of information and the manipulation ofconcepts andideas. It is goal-oriented and often happens in response to experiences by aiming at making sense of them, organizing their information, and deciding how to respond.[19] Logical reasoning is a form of thinking that starts from a set of premises and aims to arrive at a conclusion supported by these premises. This is the case when deducing that "Socrates is mortal" from the premises "Socrates is a man" and "all men are mortal".[20]Problem-solving is a closely related process that consists of several steps, such as identifying a problem, developing a plan to address it, implementing the plan, and assessing whether it worked.[21] Thinking in the form ofdecision-making involves considering possible courses of action to assess which one is the most beneficial.[22] As a symbolic process, thinking is deeply intertwined with language, and some theorists hold thatall thought happens through the medium of language.[23]
Imagination is a creative process of internally generating mental images, ideas, experiences, and related phenomena. Unlike perception, it does not directly depend on the stimulation of sensory organs. Similar todreaming, these mental constructs are often derived from previous experiences but can include novel combinations and elements. Imagination happens duringdaydreaming and plays a key role in art and literature. Additionally, it can also be used to come up with novel solutions to real-world problems.[24]
Motivation is an internal state that propels individuals to initiate, continue, or terminate goal-directed behavior. It is responsible for the formation ofintentions to performactions and affects what goals someone pursues, how much effort they invest in the activity, and how long they engage in it.[25] Motivation is affected by emotions, which are temporary experiences of positive or negative feelings like joy or anger. They are directed at and evaluate specific events, persons, or situations. They usually come together with certain physiological and behavioral responses.[26]
Attention is an aspect of other mental processes in which mental resources like awareness are directed towards certain features of experience and away from others. This happens when a driver focuses on traffic while ignoring billboards on the side of the road. Attention can be controlled voluntarily in the pursuit of specific goals but can also be diverted involuntarily when a strongstimulus captures a person's attention.[27] Attention is relevant to learning, which is the ability of the mind to acquire new information and permanently modify its understanding and behavioral patterns. Individuals learn by undergoing experiences, which helps themadapt to the environment.[28]
An influential distinction is between conscious and unconscious mental processes. Consciousness is the awareness of external and internal circumstances. It encompasses a wide variety of states, such as perception, thinking,fantasizing, dreaming, andaltered states of consciousness.[29] In the case of phenomenal consciousness, the awareness involves a direct and qualitative experience of mental phenomena, like the auditory experience of attending a concert. Access consciousness, by contrast, refers to an awareness of information that is accessible to other mental processes but not necessarily part of current experience. For example, the information stored in a memory may be accessible when drawing conclusions or guiding actions even when the person is not explicitly thinking about it.[30]
Unconscious or nonconscious mental processes operate without the individual's awareness but can still influence mental phenomena on the level of thought, feeling, and action. Some theorists distinguish betweenpreconscious,subconscious, and unconscious states depending on their accessibility to conscious awareness.[31][b] When applied to the overall state of a person rather than specific processes, the termunconscious implies that the person lacks any awareness of their environment and themselves, like during acoma.[33] The unconscious mind plays a central role inpsychoanalysis as the part of the mind that contains thoughts, memories, and desires not accessible to conscious introspection. According toSigmund Freud, thepsychological mechanism ofrepression keeps disturbing phenomena, like unacceptable sexual and aggressive impulses, from entering consciousness to protect the individual. Psychoanalytic theory studies symptoms caused by this process and therapeutic methods to avoid them by making the repressed thoughts accessible to conscious awareness.[34]
Mental states are often divided into qualitative and propositional states. Qualitative states are experiences of sensory qualities, typically referred to asqualia, like colors, sounds, smells, pains, itches, and hunger. Propositional states involve anattitude towards a content that can be expressed by adeclarative sentence. When a person believes that it is raining, they have the propositional attitude of belief towards the content "it is raining". Different types of propositional states are characterized by different attitudes towards their content. For instance, it is also possible to hope, fear, desire, or doubt that it is raining.[35][c]
A mental state or process isrational if it is based on good reasons or follows the norms of rationality. For example, a belief is rational if it relies on strong supportingevidence and a decision is rational if it follows careful deliberation of all the relevant factors and outcomes. Mental states are irrational if they fail to adhere to these standards, such as beliefs caused by faulty reasoning,superstition, orcognitive biases, and decisions that give intotemptations against one's best judgment.[37] Mental states that fall outside the domain of rational evaluation are arational rather than irrational. There is controversy regarding which mental phenomena lie outside this domain; suggested examples include sensory impressions, feelings, desires, and involuntary responses.[38]
Another contrast is betweendispositional and occurrent mental states. A dispositional state is a power that is not exercised. If a person believes that cats have whiskers but does not think about this fact, it is a dispositional belief. By activating the belief to consciously think about it or use it in other cognitive processes, it becomes occurrent until it is no longer actively considered or used. The great majority of a person's beliefs are dispositional most of the time.[39]
Traditionally, the mind was subdivided intomental faculties understood as capacities to perform certain functions or bring about certain processes.[40] An influential subdivision in thehistory of philosophy was between the faculties of intellect andwill.[41] The intellect encompasses mental phenomena aimed at understanding the world and determining what to believe or what is true; the will is concerned with practical matters and what is good, reflected in phenomena like desire, decision-making, and action.[42] The exact number and nature of the mental faculties are disputed. More fine-grained distinctions divide the intellect into the faculties of understanding and judgment or add sensibility as an additional faculty responsible for sensory impressions.[43][d]
In theMüller-Lyer illusion, the horizontal black lines have the same length but the top line appears longer. The illusion persists even after becoming aware of it because of the automatic functioning of mental modules responsible for low-level visual processing.[45]
In contrast to the traditional view, more recent approaches analyze the mind in terms ofmental modules rather than faculties.[46] A mental module is an inborn system of the brain that automatically performs a particular function within a specific domain without conscious awareness or effort. In contrast to faculties, the concept of mental modules is normally used to provide a more limited explanation. It is typically restricted to certain low-level cognitive processes without trying to explain how they are integrated into higher-level processes such as conscious reasoning.[47][e] Many low-level cognitive processes responsible for visual perception have this automatic and unconscious nature. In the case ofvisual illusions like theMüller-Lyer illusion, the underlying processes continue their operation and the illusion persists even after a person has become aware of the illusion, indicating the mechanical and involuntary nature of the process.[49] Other examples of mental modules concern cognitive processes responsible forlanguage processing andfacial recognition.[50]
Theories of the nature of mind aim to determine what allmental states have in common. They seek to discover the "mark of the mental", that is, the criteria that distinguish mental from non-mental phenomena.[51] Epistemic criteria say that the unique feature of mental states is how people know about them. For example, if a person has a toothache, they have direct or non-inferential knowledge that they are in pain. But they do not have this kind of knowledge about non-mental phenomena such as the physical causes of the pain, and may have to consultexternal evidence through visual inspection or a visit to the dentist. Another feature commonly ascribed to mental states is that they are private, meaning that others do not have direct access to a person's mental state. As a result, external observers have to make inferences from other indicators, like the pain behavior of the person with the toothache. Some philosophers claim that knowledge of some or all mental states isinfallible, for instance, that a person cannot be mistaken about whether they are in pain.[52]
A related view asserts that all mental states are either conscious or accessible to consciousness. According to this view, when a person actively remembers the fact that the Eiffel Tower is in Paris then this state is mental because it is part of consciousness. When the person does not think about it, this belief is still considered a mental state because the person could bring it to consciousness by thinking about it. This view denies the existence of a "deep unconsciousness", that is, unconscious mental states that cannot in principle become conscious.[53]
Another theory says thatintentionality[f] is the mark of the mental. A state is intentional if it refers to orrepresents something. For example, if a person perceives a piano or thinks about it then the mental state is intentional because it refers to a piano. This view distinguishes between the original intentionality of mental phenomena and the derivative intentionality of some non-mental phenomena. According to this view, the ability of words and pictures to refer to things derives from the fact that they can evoke mental states. In this sense, only mental states have original intentionality, whereas words and pictures have derivative intentionality since they would not refer if divorced from linguistic conventions or visual interpretations. Some philosophers disagree that all mental states are intentional, citing itches, tickles, and pains as possible exceptions.[55]
According tobehaviorism, mental states are dispositions to engage in certain publicly observable behavior as a reaction to particular external stimuli. This view implies that mental phenomena are not private internal states but are accessible to empirical observation like regular physical phenomena.[56]Functionalism agrees that mental states do not depend on the exact internal constitution of the mind and characterizes them instead in regard to their functional role. The functional role of a mental state is the way it interacts with other phenomena. For example,pain is often caused by bodily injury and typically leads to pain behavior, like moaning, and a desire to stop the pain. As a result, injury, pain behavior, and desire are part of the functional role of pain.[57]Computationalism, a similar theory prominent in cognitive science, defines minds in terms of cognitions andcomputations as information processors.[58]
Theories under the umbrella ofexternalism emphasize the mind's dependency on the environment. According to this view, mental states and their contents are at least partially determined by external circumstances.[59] For example, some forms of content externalism hold that it can depend on external circumstances whether a belief refers to one object or another.[60] The position ofembedded cognition emphasizes that mental processes happen in the context of a physical and social environments. It examines how this context shapes cognitive activity.[61] Theextended mind thesis states that external circumstances not only influence the mind but are part of it. In this sense, a diary is part of the mind by helping it store information. Similarly, an electronic calculator is part of the mind by helping it perform calculations.[62] The closely related view ofenactivism holds that mental processes involve an interaction between organism and environment.[63] A theory from the field ofembodied cognition states that the connection to a body is an essential feature of minds. It asserts that certain aspects of the body outside the nervous system, like motor capacities, are part of the mind.[64][g]
The mind–body problem is the difficulty of providing a general explanation of the relationship between mind and body, for example, of the link between thoughts and brain processes. Despite their different characteristics, mind and body interact with each other, like when a bodily change causes mental discomfort or when a limb moves because of anintention.[66] The mind–body problem came to particular prominence in modern philosophy as a result of Descartes' metaphysical distinction between mind and body. Earlier philosophers typically did not see mind and body as contrasting principles.[67][h] Following Descartes' philosophy, minds were often conceived as substantial entities able to exist on their own. Now they are more commonly seen as capacities rather than independent entities.[69]
Different approaches toward resolving the mind–body problem[70]
According tosubstance dualism, minds or souls exist as independententities in addition to material things. This view implies that, at least in principle, minds can exist without bodies.[71]Property dualism is another view, saying that mind and matter are not independent entities but differentproperties that apply to the same individual.[72]Monist views, by contrast, state that reality is made up of only one kind. According to metaphysicalidealists, for instance, everything is mental.[73][i] They understand material things as mental phenomena, for example, as ideas or perceptions.[75] According toneutral monists, by contrast, the world is at its most fundamental level neither physical nor mental but neutral. They see physical and mental concepts as convenient but superficial ways to describe reality.[76]
The monist view most influential since the 20th century has beenphysicalism, also referred to asmaterialism,[j] which states that everything is physical.[78] According toeliminative physicalism, there are no mental phenomena, meaning that things like beliefs and desires do not form part of reality.[79]Reductive physicalists defend a less radical position: they say that mental states exist but can, at least in principle, be completely described by physics without the need for special sciences like psychology. For example,behaviorists aim to analyze mental concepts in terms of observable behavior without resorting to internal mental states.[80]Type identity theory also belongs to reductive physicalism and says that mental states are the same as brain states.[81] Whilenon-reductive physicalists agree that everything is physical, they say that mental concepts describe physical reality on a more abstract level that cannot be articulated by physics.[82] According tofunctionalism, mental concepts do not describe the internal constitution of physical substances but functional roles within a system.[83] One consequence of this view is that mind does not depend on brains but can also berealized by other systems that implement the corresponding functional roles, possibly also computers.[84] A different approach, found in the tradition ofphenomenology, aims to dissolve the mind–body problem by arguing that it is based on an artificial dichotomy not present in the phenomenological description of experience.[85]
Thehard problem of consciousness is a central aspect of the mind–body problem: it is the challenge of explaining how physical states can give rise to conscious experience. Its main difficulty lies in thesubjective and qualitative nature of consciousness, which is unlike typical physical processes. The hard problem of consciousness contrasts with the "easy problems" of explaining how certain aspects of consciousness function, such as perception, memory, or learning.[86]
Another approach to the relation between mind and matter uses empirical observation to study how the brain works and which brain areas and processes are associated with specific mental phenomena.[87] The brain is the central organ of thenervous system and is present in allvertebrates and the majority ofinvertebrates. Thehuman brain is of particular complexity and consists of about 86 billionneurons, which communicate with one another viasynapses.[88] They form a complexneural network and cognitive processes emerge from their electrical and chemical interactions.[89] The human brain is divided into regions that are associated with different functions. The main regions are thehindbrain,midbrain, andforebrain.[90] Many biological functions associated with basic survival are the responsibility of the hindbrain and midbrain. Higher mental functions, ranging from thoughts to motivation, are primarily localized in the forebrain.[91]
The primary operations of many of the main mental phenomena are located in specific areas of the forebrain. Theprefrontal cortex is responsible forexecutive functions, such as planning, decision-making, problem-solving, and working memory.[92] Thesensory cortex processes and interprets sensory information, with different subareas dedicated to different senses, like thevisual and theauditory areas. A central function of thehippocampus is the formation and retrieval of long-term memories. It belongs to thelimbic system, which plays a key role in the regulation of emotions through theamygdala. Themotor cortex is responsible for planning, executing, and controlling voluntary movements.Broca's area is a separate region dedicated tospeech production.[93] The activity of the different areas is additionally influenced byneurotransmitters, which aresignaling molecules that enhance or inhibit different types of neural communication. For example,dopamine influences motivation and pleasure whileserotonin affects mood and appetite.[94]
The close interrelation of brain processes and the mind is seen by the effect that physical changes of the brain have on the mind. For instance, the consumption ofpsychoactive drugs, like caffeine,antidepressants, alcohol, andpsychedelics, temporarily affectsbrain chemistry with diverse effects on the mind, ranging from increased attention to mood changes, impaired cognitive functions, andhallucinations.[95] Long-term changes to the brain in the form ofneurodegenerative diseases andbrain injuries can lead to permanent alterations in mental functions.Alzheimer's disease in its first stage deteriorates the hippocampus, reducing the ability to form new memories and recall existing ones.[96] An often-cited case of the effects of brain injury isPhineas Gage, whose prefrontal cortex was severely damaged during a work accident when an iron rod pierced through his skull and brain. Gage survived the accident but hispersonality and social attitude changed significantly as he became more impulsive, irritable, and anti-social while showing little regard for social conventions and an impaired ability to plan and make rational decisions.[97] Not all these changes were permanent and Gage managed to recover and adapt in some areas.[98]
The mind has a long evolutionary history starting with thedevelopment of the nervous system andthe brain.[99] While it is generally accepted today that mind is not exclusive to humans and various non-human animals have some form of mind, there is no consensus at which point exactly the mind emerged.[100] The evolution of mind is usually explained in terms ofnatural selection:genetic variations responsible for new or improved mental capacities, such as better perception or social dispositions, have an increased chance of being passed on to future generations if they are beneficial tosurvival and reproduction.[101]
Minimal forms of information processing are already found in the earliest forms of life 4 to 3.5 billion years ago, like the abilities ofbacteria andeukaryoticunicellular organisms to sense the environment, store this information, and react to it.Nerve cells emerged with the development ofmulticellular organisms more than 600 million years ago as a way to process and transmit information. About 600 to 550 million years ago, an evolutionary bifurcation happened into radially symmetric organisms[k] with ring-shaped nervous systems or anerve net, likejellyfish, and organisms withbilaterally symmetric bodies, whose nervous systems tend to be more centralized. About 540 million years ago, vertebrates evolved within the group of bilaterally organized organisms. Vertebrates, like birds andmammals, have acentral nervous system including a complex brain with specialized functions. Invertebrates, likeclams andinsects, typically either have no or relatively simple brains.[103] In the course of evolution, the brains of vertebrates tended to grow and the specialization of different brain areas tended to increase. These developments are closely related to changes in limb structures, sense organs, and living conditions with a close correspondence between the size of a brain area and the importance of its function to the organism.[104] An important step in the evolution of mammals about 200 million years ago was the development of theneocortex, which is responsible for many higher-order brain functions.[105]
The size of the brain relative to the body further increased with the development ofprimates, like monkeys, about 65 million years ago and later with the emergence of the firsthominins about 7–5 million years ago.[106]Anatomically modern humans appeared about 300,000 to 200,000 years ago.[107] Various theories of the evolutionary processes responsible forhuman intelligence have been proposed. The social intelligence hypothesis says that the evolution of the human mind was triggered by the increased importance of social life and its emphasis on mental abilities associated withempathy,knowledge transfer, andmeta-cognition. According to the ecological intelligence hypothesis, the main value of the increased mental capacities comes from their advantages in dealing with a complex physical environment through processes like behavioral flexibility, learning, and tool use. Other suggested mechanisms include the effects of a changed diet with energy-rich food and general benefits from an increased speed and efficiency of information processing.[108] Some models propose that another major cognitive shift occurred possibly 50,000 to 40,000 years ago. Calledbehavioral modernity, it is associated with the emergence of new or improved mental abilities, such as technological innovativeness, abstract thinking, the use ofsymbols, planning, and social coordination.[109]
Besides the development of mind in general in the course of history,individual human minds also develop in the course of their lifetime. Some of the individual changes vary from person to person as a form of learning from experience, like forming specific memories or acquiring particular behavioral patterns. Others are more universal developments as psychological stages that all or most humans go through as they pass throughearly childhood,adolescence,adulthood, andold age.[110] These developments cover various areas, including intellectual, sensorimotor, linguistic, emotional, social, and moral developments.[111] Some factors affect the development of mind before birth, such as nutrition, maternal stress, and exposure to harmful substances like alcohol during pregnancy.[112]
Early childhood is marked by rapid developments asinfants learn voluntary control over their bodies and interact with their environment on a basic level. Typically after about one year, this covers abilities like walking, recognizing familiar faces, and producing individual words.[113] On the emotional and social levels, they develop attachments with their primary caretakers and express emotions ranging from joy and surprise to fear and anger.[114] Aninfluential theory byJean Piaget divides the cognitive development of children into four stages. The sensorimotor stage from birth until two years is concerned with sensory impressions and motor activities while learning that objects remain in existence even when not observed. In the preoperational stage until seven years, children learn to interpret and use symbols in an intuitive manner. They start employinglogical reasoning to physical objects in the concrete operational stage until eleven years and extend this capacity in the following formal operational stage toabstract ideas,probabilities, and possibilities.[115] Other important processes shaping the mind in this period aresocialization andenculturation, at first through primary caretakers and later through peers and the schooling system.[116]
Psychological transformations during adolescence are provoked by physiological developments and by being confronted with a different social situation in the form of new expectations from others. An important factor in this period is change to theself-concept, which can take the form of anidentity crisis. This process typically involves developing individuality and independence from parents while at the same time seeking closeness and conformity with friends and peers. Further developments in this period include improvements to the reasoning ability and the formation of a principled moral viewpoint.[117]
The mind also changes during adulthood but in a less rapid and pronounced manner. Reasoning and problem-solving skills improve during early and middle adulthood. Some people experience the mid-life transition as amidlife crisis involving an inner conflict aboutpersonal identity, associated with anxiety, a sense of a lack of accomplishments in life, or an awareness of mortality. Intellectual faculties tend to decline in later adulthood, specifically the ability to learn complex unfamiliar tasks and later also the ability to remember. At the same time, people tend to become more inward-looking and cautious.[118]
It is commonly acknowledged today that animals have some form of mind, but it is controversial to which animals this applies and how their mind differs from the human mind.[119] Different conceptions of the mind lead to different responses to this problem. When understood in a very wide sense as the capacity to process information, the mind is present in all forms of life, including insects, plants, and individual cells.[120] On the other side of the spectrum are views that deny the existence of mentality in most or all non-human animals based on the idea that they lack key mental capacities, like abstractrationality and symbolic language.[121] The status ofanimal minds is highly relevant to the field ofethics since it affects the treatment of animals, including the topic ofanimal rights.[122]
Discontinuity views state that the minds of non-human animals are fundamentally different from human minds and often point to higher mental faculties, like thinking, reasoning, and deliberate decision-making.[123] This outlook is reflected in the traditionally influential position of defining humans as "rational animals" as opposed to all other animals.[124] Continuity views, by contrast, emphasize similarities and see cognitive differences in degree rather than kind. Central considerations for this position are the shared evolutionary origin and organic similarities on the level of the brain and nervous system. Observable behavior is another key factor, such as problem-solving skills,animal communication, and reactions to and expressions of pain and pleasure. Of particular importance are the questions of consciousness andsentience, that is, to what extent non-human animals have a subjective experience of the world and are capable of suffering and feeling joy.[125]
Some of the difficulties of assessing animal minds are also reflected in the topic of artificial minds. It includes the question of whether computer systems implementingartificial intelligence should be considered a form of mind.[126] This idea is consistent with some theories of the nature of mind, such as functionalism and its claim that mental concepts describe functional roles. It asserts that the functions implemented by biological brains could in principle also be implemented by artificial devices.[127]
TheTuring test aims to determine whether a computer can imitate human linguistic behavior to the degree that it is not possible to tell the difference between human and computer.[128]
TheTuring test, proposed byAlan Turing (1912–1954), is a traditionally influential procedure to test artificial intelligence: a person exchanges messages with two parties, one of them a human and the other a computer. The computer passes the test if it is not possible to reliably tell which party is the human and which one the computer. While there are computer programs today that may pass the Turing test, this alone is usually not accepted as conclusive proof of mindedness.[128] For some aspects of mind, it is controversial whether computers can, in principle, implement them, such as desires, feelings, consciousness, and free will.[129]
This problem is often discussed through the contrast betweenweak and strong artificial intelligence. Weak or narrow artificial intelligence is limited to specific mental capacities or functions. It focuses on a particular task or a narrow set of tasks, likeautonomous driving,speech recognition, ortheorem proving. The goal of strong AI, also termedartificial general intelligence, is to create a complete artificial person that has all the mental capacities of humans, including consciousness, emotion, and reason.[130] It is controversial whether strong AI is possible; influential arguments against it includeJohn Searle'sChinese Room Argument andHubert Dreyfus's critique based onHeideggerian philosophy.[131]
Mental health is a state of mind characterized by internal equilibrium andwell-being in which mental capacities function as they should. Some theorists emphasize positive features such as the abilities of a person to realize their potential, express and modulate emotions, cope with adverse life situations, and fulfill their social role. Negative definitions, by contrast, see mental health as the absence ofmental disorders.[132] Mental disorders are abnormal patterns of thought, emotion, or behavior. These patterns deviate not only from how a mental capacity works on average but from how it should work while usually causing some form ofdistress. The content of those norms is controversial and there are differences from culture to culture. For instance,homosexuality was historically considered a mental disorder by medical professionals, a view which only changed in the second half of the 20th century.[133]
There is a great variety of mental disorders, each associated with a different form of malfunctioning.Anxiety disorders involve intense and persistent fear that is disproportionate to the actual threat and significantly impairs everyday life. An example issocial phobia, which involves irrational fear of certain social situations. Anxiety disorders also includeobsessive–compulsive disorder, for which theanxiety manifests in the form ofintrusive thoughts that the person tries to alleviate by followingcompulsive rituals.[135]Mood disorders cause intense moods or mood swings that are inconsistent with the external circumstances and can last for long periods. For instance, people affected bybipolar disorder experience extreme mood swings betweenmanic states of euphoria anddepressive states of hopelessness.[136]Personality disorders are characterized by enduring patterns ofmaladaptive behavior that significantly impair regular life.Paranoid personality disorder, for example, leads people to be deeply suspicious of the motives of others without rational basis.[137]Psychotic disorders are among the most severe mental illnesses and involve a distorted relation to reality in the form of hallucinations anddelusions, as seen inschizophrenia.[138] Other disorders includedissociative disorders andeating disorders.[139]
Thebiopsychosocial model identifies three types of causes of mental disorders: biological, cognitive, and environmental factors. Biological factors include bodily causes, in particular neurological influences and genetic predispositions. On the cognitive level, maladaptive beliefs and patterns of thought can be responsible. Environmental factors involve cultural influences and social events that may trigger the onset of a disorder.[140] There are various approaches to treating mental disorders, and the most suitable treatment usually depends on the type of disorder, its cause, and the individual's overall condition.Psychotherapeutic methods use personal interaction with a therapist to change patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting.[141]Psychoanalysis aims to help patients resolve conflicts between the conscious and the unconscious mind.[142]Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on conscious mental phenomena to identify and change irrational beliefs and negative thought patterns.[143]Behavior therapy relies onclassical conditioning to unlearn harmful behaviors.[144]Humanistic therapies try to help people gain insight into theirself-worth and empower them to resolve their problems.[145]Drug therapies use medication to alter the brain chemistry involved in the disorder through substances likeantidepressants,antipsychotics,mood stabilizers, andanxiolytics.[146]
Various fields of inquiry study the mind, including psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and cognitive science. They differ from each other in the aspects of mind they investigate and themethods they employ.[147] The study of the mind poses various problems since it is difficult to directly examine, manipulate, and measure it. Trying to circumvent this problem by investigating the brain comes with new challenges of its own, mainly because of the brain's complexity as a neural network consisting of billions of neurons, each with up to 10,000 links to other neurons.[148]
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. It investigates conscious and unconscious mental phenomena, including perception, memory, feeling, thought, decision, intelligence, andpersonality. It is further interested in their outward manifestation in the form of observable behavioral patterns, studying how these patterns depend on external circumstances and are shaped by learning.[149] Psychology is a wide discipline that includes many subfields.Cognitive psychology is interested in higher-order mental activities like thinking, problem-solving, reasoning, and concept formation.[150]Biological psychology seeks to understand the underlying mechanisms on the physiological level and how they depend on genetic transmission and the environment.[151]Developmental psychology studies the development of the mind from childhood to old age whilesocial psychology examines the influence of social contexts on mind and behavior.[152]Personality psychology investigates personality, exploring how characteristic patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior develop and vary among individuals.[153] Further subfields includecomparative,clinical,educational,occupational, andneuropsychology.[154] As a scientific discipline,psychology emerged at the end of the 19th century from the experimental work ofWilhelm Wundt (1832–1920). Early schools of thought includedstructuralism,psychoanalysis,Gestalt psychology,functionalism, andbehaviorism.[155]
Psychologists use a great variety of methods to study the mind. Experimental approaches set up a controlled situation, either in the laboratory or the field, in which they modifyindependent variables and measure their effects ondependent variables.[l] This approach makes it possible to identifycausal relations between the variables. For example, to determine whether people with similar interests (independent variable) are more likely to become friends (dependent variable), participants in a study could be paired with either similar or dissimilar participants. After giving the pairs time to interact, it is assessed whether the members of similar pairs have more positive attitudes toward one another than the members of dissimilar pairs.[157]
Correlational methods examine the strength of association between two variables without establishing a causal relationship between them.[158] Thesurvey method presents participants with a list of questions aimed at eliciting information about their mental attitudes, behavior, and other relevant factors. It analyzes how participants respond to questions and how answers to different questions correlate with one another.[159] Surveys usually have a large number of participants in contrast tocase studies, which focus on an in-depth examination of a single subject or a small group of subjects, often to examine rare phenomena or explore new fields.[160] Further methods includelongitudinal studies,naturalistic observation, andphenomenological description of experience.[161]
Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system. Its primary focus is thecentral nervous system and the brain in particular, but it also investigates theperipheral nervous system mainly responsible for connecting the central nervous system to the limbs and organs. Neuroscience examines the implementation of mental phenomena on a physiological basis, covering various levels of analysis. On the small scale, it studies the molecular and cellular basis of the mind, dealing with the constitution of and interaction between individual neurons. On the large scale, it analyzes the architecture of the brain as a whole and its division into regions with different functions.[163] Thestudy of the nervous system began in the ancient period and evolved through the centuries, includinganatomical insights through dissections and speculative theories about brain functions. Neuroscience was recognized as a distinct academic discipline in the 20th century as technological advances, like the development ofneuroimaging techniques, revolutionized the field.[164]
In modern neuroscience, neuroimaging techniques are of particular importance as the main research methods of neuroscientists.Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures changes in themagnetic field of the brain associated with blood flow. Areas of increased blood flow indicate that the corresponding brain region is particularly active.Positron emission tomography (PET) uses radioactive substances to detect a range ofmetabolic changes in the brain.Electroencephalography (EEG) measures the electrical activity of the brain, usually by placingelectrodes on the scalp and measuring the voltage differences between them. These techniques are often employed to measure brain changes under particular circumstances, for example, while engaged in a specific cognitive task. Important insights are also gained from patients andlaboratory animals withbrain damage, helping neuroscientists understand the function of the damaged area and how its absence affects the remaining brain.[165]
Philosophy of mind examines the nature of mental phenomena and their relation to the physical world. It seeks to understand the "mark of the mental", that is, the features that all mental states have in common. It further investigates the essence of different types of mental phenomena, such asbeliefs,desires, emotions,intentionality, and consciousness while exploring how they are related to one another. Philosophy of mind also examines solutions to the mind–body problem, like dualism, idealism, and physicalism, and assesses arguments for and against them.[166] It asks whether people have afree will or the ability to choose their actions, and how this ability contrasts with the idea thateverything is determined by preceding causes.[167]
Thebrain in a vat is a thought experiment to examine the nature of the mind and its relation to matter. It explores how a brain would experience reality if a supercomputer fed it the same electrical stimulation a normal brain receives.[168]
While philosophers of mind also include empirical considerations in their inquiry, they differ from fields like psychology and neuroscience by giving significantly more emphasis to non-empirical forms of inquiry. One such method isconceptual analysis, which aims to clarify the meaning of concepts, likemind andintention, by decomposing them to identify their semantic parts.[169]Thought experiments are often used to evokeintuitions about abstract theories to assess their coherence and plausibility. To do so, philosophers imagine a situation relevant to a theory and employcounterfactual thinking to assess the possible consequences of this theory. Influential thought experiments includeMary the color scientist,philosophical zombies, andbrain in a vat-scenarios.[170] Because of the subjective nature of the mind, thephenomenological method is also commonly used to analyze the structure of consciousness by describing experience from the first-person perspective.[171] The philosophical discussion of the mind has a long history, reaching back toantiquity. Influential contributions were made byPlato (c. 428–347 BCE),Aristotle (384–322 BCE),René Descartes (1596–1650),David Hume (1711–1776),Immanuel Kant (1724–1804),William James (1842–1910), andGilbert Ryle (1900–1976).[172]
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of mental representations and processes. It aims to overcome the challenge of understanding something as complex as the mind by integrating research from diverse fields ranging from psychology and neuroscience to philosophy,linguistics, andartificial intelligence. Unlike these disciplines, it is not a unified field but a collaborative effort. One difficulty in synthesizing their insights is that each of these disciplines explores the mind from a different perspective and level of abstraction while using different research methods to arrive at its conclusion.[173] Cognitive science emerged in the second half of the 20th century as researchers from various disciplines began to examine how mental processes represent the world and transform information. The field expanded in the 1980s following advances in neuroimaging to include abiological perspective on how computational processes are implemented by the brain.[174]
To incorporate insights from diverse disciplines, cognitive science relies on a unified conceptualization of minds asinformation processors. This means that mental processes are understood as computations that retrieve, transform, store, and transmit information.[173] For example, perception retrieves sensory information from the environment and transforms it to extract meaningful patterns that can be used in other mental processes, such as planning and decision-making.[175] Cognitive science relies on different levels of description to analyze cognitive processes. The most abstract level focuses on the basic problem the process is supposed to solve and the reasons why the organism needs to solve it. The intermediate level seeks to uncover thealgorithm as a formal step-by-step procedure to solve the problem. The most concrete level asks how the algorithm isimplemented through physiological changes on the level of the brain.[176] Another methodology is to analyze the mind as a complex system composed of individual subsystems that can be studied independently of one another.[177] This analytic approach is complemented by thebinding problem—the challenge of explaining how the information computed in distinct neural regions is integrated to form coherent object representations.[178]
The mind is relevant to many fields. Inepistemology, theproblem of other minds is the challenge of explaining how it is possible to know that people other than oneself have a mind. The difficulty arises from the fact that people directly experience their own minds but do not have the same access to the minds of others. According to a common view, it is necessary to rely on perception to observe the behavior of others and then infer that they have a mind based onanalogical orabductive reasoning.[179] Closely related to this problem istheory of mind in psychology, which is the ability to understand that other people possess beliefs, desires, intentions, and feelings that may differ from one's own.[180]
Anthropology is interested in how different cultures conceptualize the nature of mind and its relation to the world. These conceptualizations affect the way people understand themselves, experience illness, and interpret ritualistic practices as attempts to commune withspirits. Some cultures do not draw a strict boundary between mind and world by allowing that thoughts can pass directly into the world and manifest as beneficial or harmful forces. For instance, some indigenous beliefs systems, like traditional beliefs in theAzande culture, hold that angry thoughts can directly damage another person's crops or make them ill. Other cultures strictly separate the mind from external reality, seeing it as an internal phenomenon without supernatural powers.[181]Sociology is a related field concerned with the connections between mind, society, and behavior.[182] Among other topics, it is interested in the phenomenon ofintersubjectivity, which happens when different people have a shared understanding or experience, meaning that their cognitive perspectives overlap.[183]
The concept of mind plays a central role in various religions.Buddhists say that there is noenduring self underlying mental activity. They analyze the mind as a stream of constantly changing experiences characterized byfive aspects or "aggregates":material form,feelings,perception,volition, andconsciousness.[184]Hindus, by contrast, affirm the existence of apermanent self. In an influential analogy, the human mind is compared to a horse-drawn chariot: the horses are thesenses, which lure the sense mind corresponding to the reins through sensual pleasures. The senses are controlled by the charioteer embodying theintellect while the self is a passenger.[185] In traditionalChristian philosophy, mind and soul are closely intertwined as the immaterial aspect of humans that maysurvive bodily death.[186] Islamic thought distinguishes betweenmind,spirit,heart, andself as interconnected aspects of the spiritual dimension of humans.[187]Daoism andConfucianism use the concept ofheart-mind as the center of cognitive and emotional life, encompassing thought, understanding, will, desire, and mood.[188]
Phrenology was a pseudoscientific attempt to correlate mental functions to brain areas.[189]
In the field ofeducation, the minds of students are shaped through the transmission of knowledge, skills, and character traits as a process of socialization and enculturation. This is achieved through differentteaching methods including the contrast between group work and individual learning and the use of instructional media.[190] Teacher-centered education positions the teacher as the central authority controlling the learning process whereas instudent-centered education, students have a more active role in shaping classroom activities.[191] The choice of the most effective method to develop the minds of the learners is determined by various factors, including the topic and the learner's age and skill level.[192]
The mind is a frequent subject ofpseudoscientific inquiry.Phrenology was an early attempt to correlate mental functions with specific brain areas. While its central claims about predicting mental traits by measuring bumps on the skull did not survive scientific scrutiny, the underlying idea that certain mental functions are localized in particular regions of the brain is now widely accepted.[189]Parapsychologists seek to discover and studyparanormal mental abilities ranging fromclairvoyance totelepathy andtelekinesis.[193]
^Not all languages have a word that directly corresponds to the English wordmind. For example,German uses the wordGeist, which can mean both'mind' and'spirit'.[13]
^The precise differences between these concepts are disputed. In Freud's psychoanalysis, the preconscious mind lies outside current awareness but can easily be accessed, whereas the unconscious mind is further removed from deliberate access. The wordsubconscious is sometimes used as a synonym ofpreconscious.[32]
^Some mental states, like perceptions and emotions, may have both qualitative and propositional aspects.[36]
^Mental faculties also play a central role in the Indian tradition, such as the contrast between the sense mind (manas) and intellect (buddhi).[44]
^A different perspective is proposed by the massive modularity hypothesis, which states that the mind is entirely composed of modules with high-level modules establishing the connection between low-level modules.[48]
^More generally, embodied cognition is the study of the effects of bodily phenomena on the mind. It examines, for example, how certain bodily movements improve or hinder cognitive performance and how motor capacities affect the development of cognitive abilities.[65]
^According toAristotle'shylomorphism, for example, they are complementary principles: the soul is the form of the body while the body is the matter of the soul.[68]
^The two terms are usually treated as synonyms but some theorists distinguish them by holding that materialism is restricted tomatter while physicalism is a wider term that includes additional physical phenomena, likeforces.[77]
^Psychometrics examines how to measure the mental attributes or psychological constructs underlying the variables. For example,IQ tests are one way to quantify intelligence.[156]
Luhrmann 2023, Abstract, § Introduction, § Conceptions of the mind in early ethnographies, § Conclusion: The Understanding of Mind in the West Is Peculiar
Abel, Ernest L. (2003)."Fetal Alcohol Syndrome". In Blocker, Jack S.; Fahey, David M.; Tyrrell, Ian R. (eds.).Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 231–232.ISBN978-1-57607-834-1.
Adams, Fred; Beighley, Steve (2015)."The Mark of the Mental". In Garvey, James (ed.).The Bloomsbury Companion to Philosophy of Mind. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 54–72.ISBN978-1-4742-4391-9.
Audi, Robert (2006)."Philosophy". In Borchert, Donald M. (ed.).Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 7: Oakeshott - Presupposition (2. ed.). Thomson Gale, Macmillan Reference.ISBN978-0-02-865787-5.Archived from the original on 14 February 2022.
Avramides, Anita (2023)."Other Minds".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 23 May 2019. Retrieved7 May 2024.
Berman, Steven L.; Weems, Carl F.; Stickle, Timothy R. (2006). "Existential Anxiety in Adolescents: Prevalence, Structure, Association with Psychological Symptoms and Identity Development".Journal of Youth and Adolescence.35 (3):285–292.doi:10.1007/s10964-006-9032-y.
Bermúdez, José Luis (2014).Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the Science of the Mind (2. ed.). Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-1-107-05162-1.
Bringsjord, Selmer; Govindarajulu, Naveen Sundar (2024)."Artificial Intelligence".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 13 May 2024. Retrieved6 May 2024.
Brown, James Robert; Fehige, Yiftach (2019)."Thought Experiments".Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 21 November 2017. Retrieved29 October 2021.
Clark, Kelly James; Lints, Richard; Smith, James K. A. (2004)."Mind/Soul/Spirit".101 Key Terms in Philosophy and Their Importance for Theology. Westminster John Knox Press.ISBN978-0-664-22524-7.
Coseru, Christian (2017)."Mind in Indian Buddhist Philosophy".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved8 May 2024.
Cowan, W. Maxwell; Harter, Donald H.; Kandel, Eric R. (2000). "The Emergence of Modern Neuroscience: Some Implications for Neurology and Psychiatry".Annual Review of Neuroscience.23 (1):343–391.doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.23.1.343.PMID10845068.
Cowart, Monica."Embodied Cognition".Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved2 December 2024.
Crane, Tim (1998). "Intentionality as the Mark of the Mental". In O'Hear, Anthony (ed.).Current Issues in Philosophy of Mind. Cambridge University Press. pp. 229–252.ISBN978-0-521-63927-9.
Crane, Tim; Patterson, Sarah (2000). "Introduction". In Crane, Tim; Patterson, Sarah (eds.).History of the Mind-body Problem. Routledge. pp. 1–12.ISBN978-0-415-40831-8.
Davies, Martin (2001)."Consciousness". In Wilson, Robert A.; Keil, Frank C. (eds.).The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences (MITECS). MIT Press. pp. 190–193.ISBN978-0-262-73144-7.
Driscoll, Joan Riley; Easterbrooks, M. Ann (2007)."Development, Emotional". In Cochran, Moncrieff; New, Rebecca S. (eds.).Early Childhood Education: An International Encyclopedia. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 256–259.ISBN978-0-313-01448-2.
Duncan, Stewart; LoLordo, Antonia (2013)."Introduction". In Duncan, Stewart; LoLordo, Antonia (eds.).Debates in Modern Philosophy: Essential Readings and Contemporary Responses. Routledge. pp. xi–xxi.ISBN978-1-135-13660-4.
Engelmann, Jan B.; Mulckhuyse, Manon; Ting, Chih-Chung (2019)."Brain Measurement and Manipulation Methods;". In Schram, Arthur; Ule, Aljaž (eds.).Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Experimental Economics. Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 142–172.ISBN978-1-78811-056-3.
Erulkar, Solomon D.; Lentz, Thomas L. (2024)."Nervous System".Encyclopædia Britannica.Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved2 May 2024.
Evans, Christopher (2004). "Parapsychology: A History of Research". In Gregory, Richard Langton (ed.).The Oxford Companion to the Mind. Oxford University Press. pp. 584–585.ISBN978-0-19-866224-2.
Flanagan, Owen (2005). "Mind, History of the Philosophy of". In Honderich, Ted (ed.).The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford University Press. pp. 603–607.ISBN978-0-19-926479-7.
Friedenberg, Jay; Silverman, Gordon; Spivey, Michael (2022).Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the Study of Mind (4 ed.). Sage.ISBN978-1-5443-8015-5.
Galandí, Javier Alejandro (2023)."The Mind–Body Problem: An Overview of Proposed Solutions". In Lopez-Soto, Teresa; Garcia-Lopez, Alvaro; Salguero-Lamillar, Francisco J. (eds.).The Theory of Mind Under Scrutiny: Psychopathology, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind and Artificial Intelligence. Springer. pp. 435–468.ISBN978-3-031-46742-4.
Gennaro, Rocco J."Consciousness".Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Archived from the original on 6 April 2024. Retrieved19 April 2024.
Graham, George (2023)."Behaviorism".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 9 July 2018. Retrieved11 May 2024.
Hatfield, Gary (2013). "Introduction: The Evolution of Mind, Brain, and Culture". In Hatfield, Gary; Pittman, Holly (eds.).Evolution of Mind, Brain, and Culture. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. pp. 1–44.ISBN978-1-934536-49-0.
Hoff, Eva V. (2020)."Imagination". In Runco, Mark A.; Pritzker, Steven R. (eds.).Encyclopedia of Creativity. Academic Press. pp. 617–623.ISBN978-0-12-815615-5.
Jacob, Pierre (2023)."Intentionality".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 29 August 2018. Retrieved11 May 2024.
Khushboo; Kumar, Abishek; Sharma, Bechan (2020)."Phytochemicals as Antidepressants". In Patra, Jayanta Kumar; Shukla, Amritesh C.; Das, Gitishree (eds.).Advances in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology: Recent Progress and Future Applications. Springer Nature Singapore. pp. 115–132.ISBN978-981-15-2195-9.
Kihlstrom, John F.; Tobias, Betsy A. (1991)."Anosognosia, Consciousness, and the Self". In Prigatano, George P.; Schacter, Daniel L. (eds.).Awareness of Deficit After Brain Injury: Clinical and Theoretical Issues. Oxford University Press. pp. 198–223.ISBN978-0-19-505941-0.
Kiverstein, Julian; Farina, Mirko; Clark, Andy (2013)."The Extended Mind Thesis".Oxford Bibliographies.Archived from the original on 1 February 2024. Retrieved11 May 2024.
Koenig, Oliver (2004)."Modularity: Neuroscience". In Houdé, Olivier; Kayser, Daniel; Koenig, Olivier; Proust, Joëlle; Rastier, François (eds.).Dictionary of Cognitive Science: Neuroscience, Psychology, Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics, and Philosophy. Routledge. pp. 273–275.ISBN978-1-135-45635-1.
Kriegel, Uriah (2014)."Intentionality". In Bayne, Tim; Cleeremans, Axel; Wilken, Patrick (eds.).The Oxford Companion to Consciousness. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-102103-9.
Levin, Janet (2023)."Functionalism".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved22 April 2024.
Lindeman, David."Propositional Attitudes".Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Archived from the original on 21 February 2024. Retrieved19 April 2024.
Luhrmann, Tanya Marie (2023). Stein, Felix (ed.)."Mind".The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Cambridge University Press.Archived from the original on 7 May 2024. Retrieved7 May 2024.
Lurz, Robert."Minds, Animal".Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Archived from the original on 6 May 2024. Retrieved6 May 2024.
Macmillan, Malcolm; Lena, Matthew L. (2010). "Rehabilitating Phineas Gage".Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.20 (5):641–658.doi:10.1080/09602011003760527.PMID20480430.
Mandalaywala, Tara; Fleener, Christine; Maestripieri, Dario (2014)."Intelligence in Nonhuman Primates". In Goldstein, Sam; Princiotta, Dana; Naglieri, Jack A. (eds.).Handbook of Intelligence: Evolutionary Theory, Historical Perspective, and Current Concepts. Springer. pp. 11–26.ISBN978-1-4939-1562-0.
Mandik, Pete (2014).This Is Philosophy of Mind: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell.ISBN978-0-470-67447-5.
Matheson, Benjamin (2017)."Introduction". In Nagasawa, Yujin; Matheson, Benjamin (eds.).The Palgrave Handbook of the Afterlife. Springer. pp. 1–20.ISBN978-1-137-48609-7.
Mijoia, Alain de (2005). "The Unconscious".International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Macmillan Reference. pp. 1818–1820.ISBN978-0-02-865927-5.
Morton, Adam (2005). "Mind". In Honderich, Ted (ed.).The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 603.ISBN978-0-19-926479-7.
Murphy, Patricia (2003)."1. Defining Pedagogy". In Gipps, Caroline V. (ed.).Equity in the Classroom: Towards Effective Pedagogy for Girls and Boys. Routledge. pp. 9–22.ISBN978-1-135-71682-0.
Opris, Ioan; Casanova, Manuel F.; Lebedev, Mikhail A.; Popescu, Aurel I. (2017). "Prefrontal Cortical Microcircuits Support the Emergence of Mind". In Opris, Ioan (ed.).The Physics of the Mind and Brain Disorders: Integrated Neural Circuits Supporting the Emergence of Mind. Springer. pp. 69–94.ISBN978-3-319-29672-2.
Penn, Derek C.; Holyoak, Keith J.; Povinelli, Daniel J. (2008). "Darwin's Mistake: Explaining the Discontinuity Between Human and Nonhuman Minds".Behavioral and Brain Sciences.31 (2):109–130.doi:10.1017/S0140525X08003543.PMID18479531.
Perler, Dominik (2015)."Introduction". In Perler, Dominik (ed.).The Faculties: A History. Oxford University Press. pp. 3–18.ISBN978-0-19-993527-7.
Polger, Thomas W."Functionalism".Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Archived from the original on 19 May 2019. Retrieved11 May 2024.
Popescu, Aurel I.; Opris, Ioan (2017). "Introduction: From Neurons to the Mind". In Opris, Ioan (ed.).The Physics of the Mind and Brain Disorders: Integrated Neural Circuits Supporting the Emergence of Mind. Springer. pp. 23–54.ISBN978-3-319-29672-2.
Rescorla, Michael (2020)."The Computational Theory of Mind".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 18 December 2020. Retrieved11 May 2024.
Rescorla, Michael (2023)."The Language of Thought Hypothesis".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 13 May 2024. Retrieved17 April 2024.
Robbins, Philip (2017)."Modularity of Mind".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 12 February 2021. Retrieved16 April 2024.
Roth, Gerhard (2013).The Long Evolution of Brains and Minds. Springer.ISBN978-94-007-6258-9.
Rowlands, Mark; Lau, Joe; Deutsch, Max (2020)."Externalism About the Mind".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved25 February 2024.
Rysiew, Patrick (2012)."Rationality".Oxford Bibliographies.Archived from the original on 23 December 2022. Retrieved6 May 2024.
Schweizer, Paul (1993). "Mind/Consciousness Dualism in Sankhya-Yoga Philosophy".Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.53 (4):845–859.doi:10.2307/2108256.JSTOR2108256.
Schwitzgebel, Eric (2024)."Belief".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 15 November 2019. Retrieved20 April 2024.
Searle, John R. (1991). "Consciousness, Unconsciousness and Intentionality".Philosophical Issues.1:45–66.doi:10.2307/1522923.JSTOR1522923.
Searle, John R. (2004).Mind: A Brief Introduction. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-515733-8.
Shields, Christopher (2020)."Aristotle's Psychology".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved5 December 2024.
Singer, Jerome L. (2000). "Imagination". In Kazdin, Alan E. (ed.).Encyclopedia of Psychology. Vol. 4. American Psychological Association. pp. 227–230.ISBN978-1-55798-187-5.
Smith, David Woodruff (2018)."Phenomenology".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 23 June 2020. Retrieved27 April 2024.
Steiner, Gary (2014)."Cognition and Community". In Petrus, Klaus; Wild, Markus (eds.).Animal Minds & Animal Ethics: Connecting Two Separate Fields. transcript Verlag. pp. 83–112.ISBN978-3-8394-2462-9.
Stich, Stephen P.; Warfield, Ted A. (2008)."Introduction". In Stich, Stephen P.; Warfield, Ted A. (eds.).The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind. John Wiley & Sons. pp. vii–xi.ISBN978-0-470-99875-5.
Stoljar, Daniel (2024)."Physicalism".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 3 November 2019. Retrieved22 April 2024.
Tanney, Julia (2022)."Gilbert Ryle".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved11 January 2025.
Tappolet, Christine (2023).Philosophy of Emotion: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge.ISBN978-1-138-68743-1.
Thagard, Paul (2023)."Cognitive Science".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved15 January 2025.
Thomas, Evan (2020). "Descartes on the Animal Within, and the Animals Without".Canadian Journal of Philosophy.50 (8):999–1014.doi:10.1017/can.2020.44.ISSN0045-5091.
Timpe, Kevin."Free Will".Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Archived from the original on 6 April 2019. Retrieved28 March 2024.
Toren, Christina (2010). "Psychological Anthropology". In Barnard, Alan; Spencer, Jonathan (eds.).The Routledge Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Routledge. pp. 577–583.ISBN978-0-415-40978-0.
Tsien, Joe Z. (2005)."Learning and Memory". In Albers, R. Wayne; Price, Donald L. (eds.).Basic Neurochemistry: Molecular, Cellular and Medical Aspects. Elsevier. pp. 859–874.ISBN978-0-08-047207-2.
Turkington, Carol; Mitchell, Deborah R. (2010)."Hippocampus".The Encyclopedia of Alzheimer's Disease. Infobase Publishing. p. 115.ISBN978-1-4381-2858-0.
Weiner, Bernard (2000). "Motivation: An Overview". In Kazdin, Alan E. (ed.).Encyclopedia of Psychology. Vol. 5. American Psychological Association. pp. 314–317.ISBN978-1-55798-187-5.
Wong, David (2023)."Mind (Heart-Mind) in Chinese Philosophy".The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.Archived from the original on 13 May 2024. Retrieved8 May 2024.
Wragg-Sykes, Rebecca (2016)."Humans Evolve".Big History: Our Incredible Journey, from Big Bang to Now. Dorling Kindersley. pp. 180–222.ISBN978-0-241-22590-5.
Yukalov, V. I.; Sornette, D. (2014)."How Brains Make Decisions". In Freund, Friedemann; Langhoff, Stephanie (eds.).Universe of Scales: From Nanotechnology to Cosmology: Symposium in Honor of Minoru M. Freund. Springer. pp. 37–54.ISBN978-3-319-02207-9.
