Please explain, "The human mind is like a mirror receiving images from the external world".?

Answer 1

Think of it this way...With no input,your mind would be blank..

Answer 2

You are right about the way ancient sages have interpreted the human condition in a spiritual way, but not all of them have taken the line that because we are like this, God must be like this too (even if they put it the other way around). There's a sound spiritual reason for the God of the Bible insisting on several critical differences between him and the gods of the nations; whatever is of God, the devil imitates - in order to confuse. Does God have angels? So does the devil. Does God dwell in light? The devil appears as an angel of light. Does God accept worship? So does the devil. Is God a triune being? The devil spawns his unholy triads too. Trinities are found all over the place, but a difference between the pagan ones and the Christian one is the God is totally Other and beyond our understanding. The enigma remains that although he has revealed himself as three persons working in fabulous harmony, he still insists that he alone is the only God to be worshipped - not three gods. If Christianity had wanted to come up with a doctrine that would win everybody over, it would never have been the Trinity doctrine! Yet its very inscrutableness points to it being true. Men only dream up what they can explain and explain it in such a way that others can understand and, hence, follow. There is no human analogy of the Trinity that works.

Answer 3

The human mind is like a mirror because it models events. The model tries to mirror reality so that reality can be modeled to test outcomes. For example, we use the model of a parabola when we catch a ball in order to position our selves under the ball when it arrives. The models have varying degrees of accuracy depending on how many missing forces are not accommodated.

Answer 4

The human mind is not beyond its own means. Everything
which is perceived is potentially projectable back towards
the external world. The reason why that which is perceived
are images rather than other human minds is because
that which is projected might not reach its authentic
potential.

Answer 5

Self consciousness is consciousness conscious of its self, self reflecting upon its self. Mirrors reflect light for which we apply interpretation for our eyes seeing the light. 'Image' is one abstract expression for that light interpreted. A person who sees a reflection of their image self may be said to reflect of their self, but that is only one interpretation for 'reflection'. The 'external world' is other and other is not self.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/ol/ol_phen.htm
Outline of Hegel's Phenomenology
INTRODUCTION
1. Our ordinary Knowing has before itself only the object which it knows, but does not at first make an object of itself, i.e., of the Knowing. But the whole which is extant in the act of knowing is not the object alone, but also the Ego that knows, and the relation of the Ego and the object to each other, i.e. Consciousness.

Answer 6

Sandman's interpretation is fairly in line with mine.

If you have no influences in your life you will only reflect your environment, but as your life goes on and you gain more influences you will reflect them also.

Each and every encounter you've had in your life is reflected in your metaphorical mirror mind.

Answer 7

We see what we want to see. How we see the world is how we process it. "If we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change"