Posted on December 2, 2009 - by David

Brain=Mind=?

One of the main problems with discussion of this topic is the ambiguity of certain terms. A little reading (books, blogs, etc.) quickly reveals the confusion. The other day, I found this blog post, though a little old it’s worth checking out.  What struck me was the first sentence of an abstract of the paper the post references:

“Our brains and minds are shaped by our experiences, which mainly occur in the context of the culture in which we develop and live.”

Statements like these take for granted that there is a difference between “brains” and “minds,” but no hint is given as to what this difference might be. If the two are merely synonyms, why be redundant?

To be sure, this is a topic we will return to again and again, but it seems worthwhile to say a few things now. In Greenfeld’s theory,  (as she describes in brief in Nationalism and the Mind and will flesh out in her forthcoming work on mental illness) the mind is the individualized process of culture. Because of this, her definitions of culture and mind are inextricably linked. She writes, “The mind is also a symbolic and a mental process: it is supported by biological brain mechanisms, but is generated by culture outside of the human brain. The mind is, one may say, an individualized culture process, or culture in the brain” (Greenfeld 16-17). This is only the beginning, but the important thing is to identify the mind as part of the emergent phenomenon of culture, a reality dependent on the brain for its support but not reducible to biological functions.

To be fair, I couldn’t read the paper that Hugo Mercier references in this blog post to find out if it’s any more enlightening than the abstract. I never knew how lucky I was as an undergrad to have virtually unlimited access to research papers and journal articles until recently. $32 for one article? Some journals offer free trials – I just took advantage of one from the New England Journal of Medicine and I’ll be on the lookout for others.

So… be aware of the brain/mind confusion, and college students, take advantage of your resources! If you don’t have time to read something now, print it out and hold on to it. Paper and ink aren’t cheap, and your print quota (whatever it may be) in your college’s computer lab is part of what you’re paying for. Use your brain (or is it mind?) and get your money’s worth.