-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Consciousness, Mind, and Brain
- Thread starter atanu
- Start date
Druidus
Keeper of the Grove
I would posit that they are different.
The brain produces consciousness, and the subjective conscious experience of this, as well as the subconscious' alterations of that experience, is our mind.
I think the brain produces consciousness because of the strong evidence for it's components being necessary for it, and for losing it taking away consciousness, or parts of consciousness. You could lose your sight, or your taste, or your awareness of a limb, or your memories, etc. It's known how a great deal of what makes up consciousness is processed in the brain. Really the only thing you have to do to accept this is understand that the brain is a powerful organic computing/thinking organ that evolved over many hundreds of millions of years. It's exact purpose is to produce consciousness, in varying degrees, which the individual owning the brain then uses to act on and regulate its behaviour with. The human brain is no different.
The mind however, I would suggest, is what we subjectively call our consciousness, because when we talk about "losing our mind", what we really mean is part of our consciousness is being lost. It's the part of consciousness you feel and exist within. Your memories, your emotions, your thoughts, all of these are parts of your mind, but outside the things you can subjectively experience there are other parts of consciousness.
All minds are a part of a consciousness, but not all of a given consciousness is mind, and both are part of a brain, but a whole brain is neither alone.
(I hope this is the kind of response you wanted, I'll try to add more if you meant something else.)
The brain produces consciousness, and the subjective conscious experience of this, as well as the subconscious' alterations of that experience, is our mind.
I think the brain produces consciousness because of the strong evidence for it's components being necessary for it, and for losing it taking away consciousness, or parts of consciousness. You could lose your sight, or your taste, or your awareness of a limb, or your memories, etc. It's known how a great deal of what makes up consciousness is processed in the brain. Really the only thing you have to do to accept this is understand that the brain is a powerful organic computing/thinking organ that evolved over many hundreds of millions of years. It's exact purpose is to produce consciousness, in varying degrees, which the individual owning the brain then uses to act on and regulate its behaviour with. The human brain is no different.
The mind however, I would suggest, is what we subjectively call our consciousness, because when we talk about "losing our mind", what we really mean is part of our consciousness is being lost. It's the part of consciousness you feel and exist within. Your memories, your emotions, your thoughts, all of these are parts of your mind, but outside the things you can subjectively experience there are other parts of consciousness.
All minds are a part of a consciousness, but not all of a given consciousness is mind, and both are part of a brain, but a whole brain is neither alone.
(I hope this is the kind of response you wanted, I'll try to add more if you meant something else.)
Last edited:
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I view consciousness as a result, the mind as the process, and the brain as the physical medium enabling this phenomena.
Consciousness is the faculty of awareness.
Mind is the sum of objects of which we are aware.
Brain is the organ of the body that processes input as part of the nervous system.
So, different.
psychoslice
Veteran Member
psychoslice
Veteran Member
sandandfoam
Veteran Member
I read somewhere recently the idea that brain=hardware, mind=software, and self=the text on the screen.
I quite liked that.
I quite liked that.
That strikes me as fairly apt, too.
CynthiaCypher
Well-Known Member
I interpret it more as brain is the hardware, consciousness is the operating system by which we process data, and our mind is our database
Hello sandandfoam
I cannot see the 'knowing' aspect. Which of the above actually knows?
sandandfoam
Veteran Member
FearGod
Freedom Of Mind
The brain is a physical body.
The mind is all input and information stored and loaded to brain
Consciousness is directing the mind,for example unconscious is losing connection with the mind,so no response to the information that loaded to the brain as the person has lost connection with his mind.
Saying "I don't know" is to know. Isn't it?
What you said is probably deep. Is it possible to expand that a bit?
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Sometimes "mind" and "consciousness" are used interchangably. However, I think mind is generally broader in scope than consciousness - consciousness being one aspect of the mind. Regardless, the brain is the incredibly complex organic computer in which all the processes of the mind, including consciousness, take place in.
I would say:
Brain is the Hardware
Consciousness Is the working results
Mind is slang for refering to the two or parts of each.
FearGod
Freedom Of Mind
I don't think so,consciousness actually is controlling the whole mind and body,take for example the heavy drunk person,he'll lose the control over his mind and nothing will control his body or his thoughts and he'll just move like crazy and becomes unconscious.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Except for the subconscious, as well as autonomic functions.
Not to mention those studies from neuroscience that demonstrate decisions to act are made by the brain prior to conscious recognition of the decisions. In other words, the brain decides to reach for the apple before it becomes consciously aware of having decided to reach for the apple.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Another example - and an interesting one.
