- #1
coberst
- 306
- 0
Mind
I am always looking for an interesting topic to study. Some time ago I decided that the brain--how it functions, what we do when we think, what is the difference between the activity of the intellect and the activity of emotions, etc.--would be a great subject to attempt to understand.
I discovered there is no science of the brain yet. There is no paradigm, like Darwin’s, directing an understanding of the brain (mind?). In fact, I don’t think there is general agreement as to a name for any prospective science. What is it, science of mind or science of the brain? What is mind?
There are several disciplines attempting to develop such a science. Neurology, psychology and linguistics are a few of such disciplines hoping to establish a foundation for the study of “mind”. I have spent some time studying linguistics, as propounded by Chomsky, and think that this discipline offers some significant possibilities.
I decided that I am pretty well left to my own devices. I have to decide for my self, through reflection, what this situation is.
One conclusion I have come to is that if the “intellect” is given no task by the “will” the intellect just wonders around, constantly busy, just picking at random some activity. Often I suspect the activity “it” chooses is to worry. Our faculties of the brain play the same worry tape over and over in the head.
My point is that if the will does not assign a task to the intellect then the massive potential of the intellect is wasted. We waste our intellect because we have not prepared our mental functions to choose worth while tasks for the intellect.
We waste our most precious gift, the gift of intellect, on nonsense. We have been given, at birth, the greatest “machine” in the world—with an ability that is “ faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound etc. etc.”—a “machine” of vast potential that wonders about unused because we lack the necessary consciousness to recognize its unparalleled dimensions and how to put that potential to work on useful tasks.
I am convinced that if the intellect is given tasks “it” will solve those assignments when we are about our mundane tasks of the day. While I am digging up a tree stump my intellect is developing this essay. All I have to do is go to the computer and start typing. All of this you see herein is what my intellect has created while I was sleeping and going about my daily routines. What a terrible waste, this intellect left to wonder undirected.
I am always looking for an interesting topic to study. Some time ago I decided that the brain--how it functions, what we do when we think, what is the difference between the activity of the intellect and the activity of emotions, etc.--would be a great subject to attempt to understand.
I discovered there is no science of the brain yet. There is no paradigm, like Darwin’s, directing an understanding of the brain (mind?). In fact, I don’t think there is general agreement as to a name for any prospective science. What is it, science of mind or science of the brain? What is mind?
There are several disciplines attempting to develop such a science. Neurology, psychology and linguistics are a few of such disciplines hoping to establish a foundation for the study of “mind”. I have spent some time studying linguistics, as propounded by Chomsky, and think that this discipline offers some significant possibilities.
I decided that I am pretty well left to my own devices. I have to decide for my self, through reflection, what this situation is.
One conclusion I have come to is that if the “intellect” is given no task by the “will” the intellect just wonders around, constantly busy, just picking at random some activity. Often I suspect the activity “it” chooses is to worry. Our faculties of the brain play the same worry tape over and over in the head.
My point is that if the will does not assign a task to the intellect then the massive potential of the intellect is wasted. We waste our intellect because we have not prepared our mental functions to choose worth while tasks for the intellect.
We waste our most precious gift, the gift of intellect, on nonsense. We have been given, at birth, the greatest “machine” in the world—with an ability that is “ faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound etc. etc.”—a “machine” of vast potential that wonders about unused because we lack the necessary consciousness to recognize its unparalleled dimensions and how to put that potential to work on useful tasks.
I am convinced that if the intellect is given tasks “it” will solve those assignments when we are about our mundane tasks of the day. While I am digging up a tree stump my intellect is developing this essay. All I have to do is go to the computer and start typing. All of this you see herein is what my intellect has created while I was sleeping and going about my daily routines. What a terrible waste, this intellect left to wonder undirected.