what pathways, what triggers, and why do we have thoughts?
2006-07-09 22:14:59 · 6 answers · asked by Millenium_Roman 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
You'll get two sorts of answer to this: scientific and philosophical - but I guess you're after philosophical ones here. So...
Thoughts come from an interaction between two entities: - the mind (as distinct from the brain), and the 'outside world' (which, strange as it sounds, includes the brain).
Thought is made possible by a multi-stage process of abstraction (selection). The process starts with sensations, which are abstracted from all that is available in the 'outside world'. Next, perceptions are abstracted from sensations (for example, a bunch of sensations is perceived as, say, 'a pineapple').
Repeated perception of a pineapple results in the abstract concept of 'a pineapple' (the concept is abstract in relation to the perception because the concept serves to label any number of particular perceptions of pineapples).
Concepts of all sorts of things become concepts *of all sorts of things* by being 'sifted' through a fundamental scheme of sorting that is probably built into our minds by the very structure of our brains. Not that we have a fundamental category of 'pineapple' built into our minds - of course not - but the concept is sorted, then that sort is sorted, then that sort is sorted, and so on until the fundamental category is reached and no further sorting is possible.
From the myriad sorts of concepts, and from continued experience of the 'outside world', are abstracted propositions. Propositions are strings of concepts that have the property of being able to be held (believed) as either true or false.
A belief is a proposition that has been 'frozen' by the will in either of two categories: - the 'true' or the 'false'. We think by 'releasing' concepts and propositions into a process of rearrangement. For example, if the cat is on the mat, our current arrangement of concepts reflects that situation as that proposition. If the cat wanders off, our mind rearranges its concepts into a new proposition that reflects that new state of affairs.
Imagination is also a process of the rearrangement of concepts to form new concepts, only without the input of current perceptions. A similar thing happens in dreaming, except that imagination is directed by the will and dreaming is not.
We cannot think, nor imagine, nor dream, a thing that does not fit our fundamental scheme of sorting things. That fundamental scheme literally provides the structure of our perceived world.
2006-07-09 23:21:10 · answer #1 · answered by brucebirdfield 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sorry i dont understand the pathways,triggers or where thoughts come from. I have a personal belief that thoughts are a way for mind to solve problems.
2006-07-09 22:26:25 · answer #2 · answered by rvn 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The simple answer is: the past. Thought is always of the past. Even thinking about the future is an extension of the past. Try thinking about the present and you will see that the past is always there.
2006-07-09 22:46:14 · answer #3 · answered by furthur 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
GOD PUTS THEM IN OUR BRAINS........well he sends lil angels to to put em in our brains, cuz u know he's too busy wit thu starting of wars an snuff
2006-07-10 06:44:31 · answer #4 · answered by Chico 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you're subconsius mind beacause it's the only way u can do things right
2006-07-09 22:18:24 · answer #5 · answered by Brunette Diamond 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it comes frm external fact.
2006-07-09 22:38:44 · answer #6 · answered by eshaghi_2006 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋