Is mind identical with the brain?

Answer 1

Third P,

I think the mind is the "function" of the brain. Just like the function of the heart is to pump blood round the body.

Incidently this approach to the mind/brain issue (which is big in philosophy) is called - not surprisingly functionalism.

There are some that would deny this - (the Churchlands, google functionalism and Churchland or connectionism). The denial is called eliminativism.

Eliminativists believe that there are no such thing as mental states (obviously if the mind is just a myth) then we couldn't have mental states. I know this sounds weird and it isn't an argument like "do we actually really exist at all" it just says that our beliefs about beliefs, desires, etc are able to be explained behaviourally with reference to simple biological states...

It's all a bit complicated - go to your local Uni and do a paper in Philosophy of Mind. If you are interested in this question, you will be fascinated. :-)

Answer 2

Hi Third P.

In a way, the mind is identical to the brain. Without the brain, we no longer have a mind. The mind is part of the functions of the brain.

The brain is a highly sophisticated organ that does many things. It is the "computer" of the body. It tells our bodies to inhale & exhale. It controls our heartbeat. There are many parts of the brain that control different things we can do, such as move or see, etc.

One other function of the brain is the mind. It is one area that is not yet understood by scientists, although they are trying. Our mind is, to an extent, controlled by motor neurons & electrical firings. But the mind is much more complex than that.

So, on another level the mind is NOT identical to the brain, although it belongs to the brain.

No one is sure what makes the mind "tick," as it were. How do we think? How do we process information? Is it all chemistry or is there something more going on in there?''

I would have to say that I believe there is something more than just chemical & electrical controls running our brains. I believe we are more advanced than that.

Or it may simply be that we haven't yet explored the other parts of the brain that we supposedly do not use.

Peace

Answer 3

The brain is organic, it can be touched and felt. You can look at it and try to figure out it's structures and how it works. The mind is nebulous and not something that can easily be defined. Even though our brain's house our minds, it's our minds that give us our personalties and our lives. Your brain can be functioning and your mind not. Your brain can be allowing your physical self to survive but if your mind isn't well than you have a real problem. I equate your mind and your brain to your body and your soul. One houses the other, but with out the mind the brain, is just a factory manager of an empty building. A body with out a soul is the same thing.

Answer 4

When I evaluate this predicate 'I am brain' my response is no. My material substance is as much brain as everything connected to it. I use my skin as a boundary definer.

'80. In the last place, you will say, what if we give up the cause of material Substance, and stand to it that Matter is an unknown Somewhat - neither substance nor accident, spirit nor idea, inert, thoughtless, indivisible, immoveable, unextended, existing in no place ? I or, say you, whatever may be urged against substance or occasion, or any other positive or relative notion of Matter, hath no place at all, so long as this negative definition of Matter is adhered to - I answer, you may, if so it shall seem good, use the word 'Matter' in the same sense as other men use 'nothing', and so make those terms convertible in your style. For, after all, this is what appears to me to be the result of that definition - the parts whereof when I consider with attention, either collectively or separate from each other, I do not find that there is any kind of effect or impression made on my mind different from what is excited by the term nothing.'
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/berkeley.htm
Had he the concept for energy, the sub-matter for matter, then he may have been a little more energized for the term 'matter'.

Answer 5

The mind is the serious of thoughts inside the brain.

Answer 6

I personally do not think so I think that they are two seperate things. I think that the mind is there to tell you your senses what to do and what not to do! But there for the braun transfers it to what is acually gonna take place. Just like a math equation in order for you to get the problem you have to get and idea on what is gonna happen which is where your mind takes place. But then comes in the brain to solve it all!

Answer 7

The mind is like a program running on the brain "computer".

Answer 8

The one is a function of the other. The mind is probably a function of the brain, though the reverse is also possible.

Answer 9

I do not think so, the brain is That member which is within your Body what send and recieve and a neurological signals and remember,......etc, but the mind think and reach to results and develop theories.........etc, there is one more thing that the presence of the brain does not mean that the mind is there, but the presence of mind mean that the brain is there.
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Answer 10

No. A brain is a physical thing that can be handled and seen. A mind is an abstract thing with no physical form.