Introduction
The mind is defined as a person’s element that enables them to become conscious of the world and their own experiences of thinking, feeling the faculty and thought (Broad, 204). This paper seeks to highlight different relationships of the mind with; the body, subjective experiences brain and also expound on how he relates with the personal identity of a person.
Relationship of Mind and Brain
Typically, human beings have the characteristic of having both the brain and the mind. This two exist as separate entities but relate in different ways. The brain can be defined as the central processing unit of the human body which plays a major role in the translating of the content of the mind (Singer, 2014). First, the relationship between the two entities is a complex one, many relationships of the mind and the brain are observed in a day to day routine of a person’s life. There are both positive and negative relationships between the mind and the brain, using an example, size and weights are related to the mind while a person’s thirst and satisfaction are related to the mind.
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The physical organ that makes up the mind is the brain; they are synonymous to each other. Within the brain, there are many neurons which have the purpose of carrying different messages and holding memories. Within these neurons we get the brain, making the two relate to function well.
The brain is the physical representation of the mind making the relationship between the two to be the same. As the brain is the physical representation of the mind, the mind, on the other hand, is the brains abstract representation. The mind show characteristics of love, anger, and knowledge; all these characteristics have their origin in the brain. Any change that the mind makes results in changes in the parts of the brain, most of the parts the brain has, represents every part the mind has. Different parts of the brain end up making the mind.
How the Brain is related to Subjective Experiences
A subjective experience refers to the impact of cognitive and emotional experiences to humans as opposed to objective experiences. The mind relates to a person’s inner experience such as feelings, decisions, thoughts, and choices in different ways. First, choices made by people are mostly as a result of the activities of the mind. Brain regions around the prefrontal cortex guide the cognitive and decision-making process of a person. The brain also relates to the subjective experience of feelings (Cozolino, 2014). The brain has different parts that determine different emotions, for example the Amygdala part of the brain is responsible for emotions such as fear, love anger and sexual desire in a person, amygdala is also the part of the brain responsible memories, it serves as a long-term store of memories, it also responsible for continual negative thoughts. The mind also has some relationship with the thoughts one thinks, thoughts actually have their origin in the mind, they come as a result of a person’s interaction with the environment, in the interaction, signals are sent in the mind which enables a person to have different thoughts about the environment he/ she is subjected into. The mind also relates to the subjective of feelings. As seen earlier, the mind controls the emotions of the body; the emotions, later on, determine the feelings a person can experience; this shows how the mind relates to the feeling.
Relationship of Mind and a Separate Substance
The mind and the body exist as separate substances because the body is seen as the object of the mind. Though they exist this way, they relate in different ways; mental processes can be seen as purely physical processes. The mind being a mental process, it has the ability of thought, emotions and other conscious processes but these processes need a living body to exist because the mind cannot exist in a feed space, but it is activated in a living body. Knowledge acquired by the brain will need a separate substance like the body for the knowledge to materialize.
The Mind as Merely a Function
The function can be defined as a quantity highly depending on another quantity. The mind can in a huge way be related to as a function because it cannot exist on its own. The mind needs the brain to function; it needs the brain to help it in interpreting different feelings and emotions; it also needs the brain to coordinate different activities of the body. Nevertheless, the mind needs the body to function because it cannot operate in a vacuum, for example, thoughts from the mind cannot exist on their own, they need the body to materialize, at the same time knowledge acquired by the brain will need the body. With this, the mind is referred to as a function.
How We Define Our Identity?
Personal identity is a concept that a person develops about him/herself during life. It can also be defined as a numerical identity of someone during life. The mental state of a person attributes highly how a person defines his/ her identity (Slentz, 2014). When a person has good feelings about himself/herself, there is a high chance of positive personal identity of that person. Positive personal identity is also brought about by knowledge about self; knowledge is an attribute that is influenced by the mind; therefore, the mind greatly determines how we define our personal identity. Personal identity is highly associated with the mind and brain and other subjective experiences such as desire, will, and feelings. Personal identity is highly associated with two main attributes, which is the body and mind. With the mind, personal identity comes from the feelings and thoughts a person has. The mind greatly has some sought of effect on the thoughts someone thinks which later determine if a person can identify himself or not. The body too determines a person’s identity, different objective activities that take place outside the mind but within the body such as the acquisition of knowledge, end up determining a person’s identity.
Conclusion
To conclude, the mind is a very vital part of the existence of human beings. Humanity is complete as a result of the mind. The mind comes out as an immaterial entity which manifests itself in different immaterial ways. The mind also relates to different entities like the body, whereby the mind needs the body to completely function, the mind also has some relationship with subjective activities of people, it determines the feelings of people, determines how people think and also the emotions of a person are highly influenced by the mind. Nevertheless, the paper has looked at how the mind determines the personal identity of a person; personal identity is highly associated with the body, feelings, and emotions which are entities affected by the mind.
References
Broad, C. D. (2014). The Mind and its Place in Nature . New York: Routledge.
Cozolino, L. (2014). The neuroscience of human relationships: Attachment and the developing social brain . WW Norton & Company.
Singer, T., & Tusche, A. (2014). Understanding others: Brain mechanisms of theory of mind and empathy. In Neuroeconomics (pp. 513-532). Academic Press.
Slentz, C. A., Duscha, B. D., Johnson, J. L., Ketchum, K., Aiken, L. B., Samsa, G. P., ... & Kraus, W. E. (2014). Effects of the amount of exercise on body weight, body composition, and measures of central obesity: STRRIDE—a randomized controlled study. Archives of internal medicine , 164 (1), 31-39.
