How can we gain insight into the ‘mind’? Minds are associated with brains and have both conscious and unconscious aspects. The unconscious aspect of the mind is perhaps not too difficult to conceptualise. (Well, relatively speaking, that is!) Some define the mind as ‘what the brain does’ and this expression appears to capture something of what minds are. Cognitive psychologists tell us that brains ‘process information’ roughly in the same way that computers process information. But does such an analogy give any insight into the conscious aspect of the mind? Isn’t conscious awareness, with its ‘raw feeling of being’, something uniquely human, rather distinct from the ‘cold properties’ that computers exhibit?
The conscious aspect of the mind is highly paradoxical. We have only limited understanding of how this phenomenon exists and how it relates to the brain. Yet it is surely the feature of existence with which all of us are the most familiar. If you need any convincing of this, simply consider your own conscious mind and its ever-changing contents. You can probably describe rather well the thoughts, memories and feelings that occupy your conscious mind right now. For example, fleeting memories, wishes, plans or intrusive imagery might come and go. You can probably report something of what was ‘on your mind’ yesterday. Being the one in ‘possession’ of the conscious mind, you have privileged access to such conscious events.
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