Mind & intellect

The mind is the totality of abilities for thinking [1], cognition [2], understanding, perception, memorization, generalization, evaluation and decision making. The mind is determined by sensations, emotions, understanding, memory, desires, individual characteristics and motives, and subconsciousness [3].

In Russian, the term can be traced back to the time of "The Lay of Igor's Host" (The prince slept of the lust or the mind smashed). In the synodal translation of the Bible, the word "mind" (the mind of God) translates what in Church Slavonic is meant as the heart (Latin cor) (Ezekiel 28: 2). However, the term mind (oum, lat sensum) is also found in the Church Slavonic translation of the Bible (1 Corinthians 2:16, 1 Corinthians 14:20, Phil 4: 7). The mind (Latin mens, dr.-Greek νοῦς) is opposed to the spirit as an ability to understand (1 Corinthians 14:14).

The Russian word "mind" in translated literature is often used as a translation of the Sanskrit term "citta", English mind and German terms geist (spirit) [4]. The word "mind" was used in translating Descartes' book "Rules for the guidance of the mind" (Latin Regulae ad directionem ingenii).

To Latin synonyms, "intelligence" (from Latin intellectus "understanding, cognition") can be referred to as intelligence, reason, mental ability: to learn from experience, adapt, apply knowledge, to control the environment or to think abstractly [5].

Often the minds are called scientists, Nobel laureates, advisers, analysts and specialists who are engaged in mental work [6] [7] [8].

It is believed that among all that is observed, the mind is a property inherent exclusively to man, nevertheless there are theories that allow the mind in other animals. Some theories suggest the existence of a single superhuman mind (Absolute Reason), one theory considers the mind to be a universal property of matter [3]

To the parameters of "mind"
The parameters that make up the distinctive features of a person's mental system are:

the volume of working memory, the ability to predict, tool activity, logic [9],
multilevel (6 layers of neurons) hierarchy of systemic selection of valuable information [10],
consciousness [11],
memory [12].
The place of "mind" in consciousness
In the processes of the developed consciousness, self-observation distinguishes three main groups of phenomena:

Perceptions and their mental processing;
Changes in emotional balance;
Willed urge.
This distinction has the character of abstraction in the sense that there are no known states of consciousness in which any of these elements would be completely absent; but the possibility of a different quantitative and qualitative combination of them and the impossibility of reducing one of them to the other makes them distinguish them in the same way as we distinguish in objective objects form and color that are never observed in pure form. The first of the main groups of mental processes is called the mind, mental or cognitive activity. The diversity of the phenomena of this group and the quantitative predominance of differentiated mental processes over the processes of the other two groups led and often lead to an excessive expansion of the volume of the concept of "mind" and the identification with it of the totality of the phenomena of consciousness; on the other hand, the role played by the most complex processes of processing of perception in the intellectual activity of the cultural person leads to a narrowing of the volume of the concept that introduces the same inconsistency and the identification of the "mind" with these processes, the totality of which is called the intellect, reason, and so on.

The three-member division was widely spread in psychology thanks mainly to Immanuel Kant. To study mental activity it is possible either in its elements (Perception, Attention, Association, Memory, Reason, Reason, Judgment), or because they are combined in individual psychology and characterize mental personality. A characteristic feature of human consciousness is that from the innumerable set of phenomena of the external world the material for mental operations is delivered only by an insignificant part - phenomena that can be perceived through the sense organs
Mind, experience and sense organs
One can imagine a psychic world, the domain of perception of which is limited almost exclusively to tactile impressions (blind and deaf-mute Laura Bridgman); under these conditions, it is possible to form quite complex representations, but the psychic life will be strikingly one-sided. Of the perceptions of the visual and auditory, the latter seem to have a greater significance for mental development, owing to their close connection with the audio speech, which is mainly due to the possibility of using the mental experience accumulated by the preceding generations: deaf-mutes who have not received education, level of idiot even in the case when deafness does not depend on a more general brain damage.

But even with complete unharmed sense organs, not all the impressions that act on them enter the human consciousness as a material suitable for further mental processing. Most of the daily impressions received for this are too vague and vague. In order for them to become perceptions, we need, in addition to the conditions of a physiological nature, the conditions of the mental property that determine the mental individuality. Impressions become clear perceptions only if they meet in the human mind some kind of resonators, in the form of images of memories contained in it, the joint excitation of which intensifies sensual irritation (apperception). A person unfamiliar with the plant world will receive an amazingly scanty number of perceptions when looking at a flower, in comparison with a botanist. The same is observed by non-specialists when visiting, for example, an exhibition of cars. Individual strong impressions can still penetrate into consciousness, but they do not stay in it and are not digested, since they do not enter into a connection with our ideas and concepts and remain without consequences in the sense of further mental processing.

In this position, in relation to the entire area of ​​external impressions, is the child's consciousness at the first time after his birth. While the impressions of the external world have not yet formed any lasting traces for memories, the fabric of psychological relations in which all subsequent impressions immediately weave with the mental acquisitions of the preceding time does not arise. Even when often recurring impressions have already created strong impressions in the child's mind, the number of his perceptions is very poor and one-sided, in accordance with the small number and monotony of his memories. Just as scant and one-sided perception of the savage. Education and science increase our sensitivity to external impressions, creating in our minds consonance with the most diverse impressions of the external world. The most important consequence of the influence of the available reserve of ideas on the process of perception is the possibility of choosing between impressions acting on us. The content of the child's consciousness is completely dependent on the contingencies of the surrounding environment; At this moment only the strongest stimulations act at any given moment, regardless of the internal connection of the phenomena.

In adults, on the other hand, the process of perception more and more obeys the inclinations of each, emerging from personal psychic experience. The person perceives preferentially those impressions, which find an echo in the ideas he has accumulated and their associations; every step in this direction progressively intensifies responsiveness, so that, at last, the slightest hint at the impression close to our mental world causes a clear and distinct perception. This way the unity of the human personality is maintained, a mental individuality is created. From what has been said it is clear that memory has an outstanding influence on the whole course of our mental life.
Mind and memory
A common notion that does not link the development of memory with mental development is based on a misunderstanding. Our memories not only form the network in which new impressions are interwoven, but in part determine the choice of those perceptions that will enter our consciousness as a renewing material, and the place they will occupy in a common network of psychological relationships. They affect not only the quantity, but also the quality of the received perceptions. The modern civilized person sees in the fetish not what he sees as an African savage from the primitive tribe; The object under analysis changes under the influence of the "apperciping mass", as it itself modifies it, entering with it in combination. The weakening of memory in old age or under the influence of progressive paralysis leads to the disintegration of mental life and the loss of mental individuality: a person becomes a helpless victim of random strongest impressions of the moment that do not fit together and remain without further processing.

The opposition of memory to mental development, which was mentioned, is based on the identification of memory in general with some of its special kinds. In the habit of abstract thinking, for example, specific memories can be weakened, because the abstraction consists in the fact that in the product of a complex and heterogeneous association of representations, their specific features fall away; at extreme degrees of this process, specific features may even be completely absent and replaced by a symbol or sign. At these levels, perhaps the phenomenon that Goethe characterized in the words: "Wo die Begriffe fehlen, da stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein", that is the emergence of ideas that are devoid of any concrete basis in the form of concrete images, memories, - an underwater stone, about which philosophical speculation was so often broken. It is impossible, however, to deduce from this the conclusion unfavorable for memory in general; on the contrary, abstract thinking presupposes the presence of a complex and diverse complex of memories.

Mind and attention
Another important factor affecting the course of mental activity is attention. It affects already the processes of perception, increasing our receptivity to the impressions to which it is directed. Even more significant is its role in the processes of processing perceptions. If only impressions are perceived that find their echo in the apperciping mass of our consciousness, then this connection is in any case mutual, and perception enlivens in our consciousness only the consonant traces of the previous psychic experience. There are so many consonant traces in the developed consciousness that each perception perceives so much that the involuntary flow of ideas proceeding from it can take an extremely diverse and sometimes completely disorderly character.

The latter is observed in those cases when, under the influence of fatigue, we "give full freedom" to our associations of ideas; then chaotic scraps of ideas sweep through consciousness, often connected only by a random external connection and winding us so far from the starting point of our thinking that by making an effort to see the path we have traveled, we are at a dead end before the zigzags of our ideas.

In an even sharper form, this is observed with a "whirlwind of ideas" in the mentally ill. Attention is brought about during our presentations; unknown to us closer by, it, by means of consonant with this perception of "resonators," strengthens everything that corresponds to the plans, desires and needs of the individual and thus creates for the flow of ideas a certain framework. The stability of attention, the ability to concentrate it, apparently depends on the emotional characteristics of the person, the depth and stability of her emotions - and the latter is determined by the existence in the minds of a powerful, closely united group of ideas and ideas; This probably explains that the ability to deep concentration of attention is often observed in "narrow" and "one-sided" people.

The combination of ability to steady attention with breadth and versatility of the ideological content of consciousness gives geniuses. The mistake often made by people who talk about the "absent-mindedness" of the scientist and about the "absent-mindedness" of the child who is distracted from his studies about every trifle depends on the confusion of two directly opposite phenomena: in the latter case, there is a total inability to focus on anything else (phenomenon, often observed in adults under the influence of fatigue), in the first - such a deep focus on internal work, that foreign objects are unable to reach consciousness. At the higher degrees of this state, before even the mental work that fills all consciousness can retreat into the background even a mortal danger (example: Archimedes' dying minutes).
Mind and fatigue
An important moment that determines the course of mental activity is the "fatigue" of the individual. It is very great for idiots, idiots, with the age-old disintegration of mental life. Decreasing under the influence of exercise, appearing less noticeably when practicing in familiar areas, fatigue at the same time - as shown by recent research - has, like memory and attention, a sharply individual character and is part of the characteristic of mental individuality as one of its essential characteristics. We have a special type of fatigue in cases when it is in direct connection with increased impressionability: these cases lead to the emergence of a theory that identifies genius with psychosis, since genius is often accompanied by a pronounced nervous and psychasthenia. Depend on the increased impressionability and finding the last amendment to yourself, this fatigue does not exclude - under favorable conditions - the possibility of large-scale work.
Mind and emotions
On emotions, mental activity has a moderating effect; a representation combined with a bright emotion, entering into association with other series of representations, finds among them representations associated with other feelings that neutralize to some extent the original emotion. But at the same time, it deepens them: if one of the members of a complex association is associated with an emotion we experienced, the more diverse and complex the association, the more often, in the most varied occasions, we will remember the memory of this emotion. The widespread notion that "education does not make people happier" has, therefore, a reason, if the criterion of happiness is to consider immediate cheerfulness, rather than the intensity and completeness of psychic life: savages and children, with their undeveloped memory, are more direct and cheerful than an educated person , preserving memories of past sufferings, staining with a touch of sadness and thinking about the future. Emotions of the first brighter, but superficial. Qualitatively, mental activity influences especially the expansion of sympathetic feelings; its influence in this respect is so sharp that the well-known formula: "All to understand, it means to forgive everything," could be rightfully paraphrased as follows: "To know everything means to love everything."

Mental activity is accompanied by special "mental emotions". Like other higher emotions, mental emotions are inferior in their intensity to the lowest at the time of their appearance, but are characterized by an incomparably greater capacity for renewal. Accompanying our thinking almost continuously throughout life, they, in a person with widely developed mental activity, give the main background of mental mood stability and evenness and can disappear only under the influence of exceptionally severe shocks breaking the psychic individuality. With regard to our reactions to external impressions, mental activity has a dramatically retarding effect. In this delay, and the meaning of its origin in the phylogeny of the organic world, as one of the mechanisms of adaptation of organisms to a more complex environment. In addition to simple impressions, which even in modern man cause simple reflexes (reflex cough when entering the respiratory throat of a foreign body, reflex vomiting, etc.), phenomena that consist of a series of consecutive impressions act on the body.

The function of mental activity is to delay the reaction under the influence of the first of these impressions, to allow the following impressions to act, to combine the new perception with the memories of the previous experience, and to develop an expedient and systematic reaction. The complex series of reactions developed by means of consciousness to complex series of impressions are transformed by the skill into instinctual ones, that is, proceeding so quickly that they usually do not penetrate into consciousness and approach the type of reflex. Mental activity is so inherent in the propensity to delay reaction, that in the one-sided direction of mental development only towards the upbringing of the mind, phenomena of "paralysis" or, more correctly, "underdevelopment of the will"
Mind and Will
A normal series of mental processes (perception, mental processing, volitional reaction) often does not take place in its entirety or under the influence of passive dreaminess, or because education substitutes for self-activity by discipline and places the reflexive execution of orders at the place of the volitional act resulting from the mental work of the individual. Hence the strange separation of the mental and volitional spheres that so often struck moralists and found expression in a famous verse: "vidéo meliora proboque, deteriora sequor" ("I see and approve the best, and following the worst," Ovid, "Metamorphoses") . The actions of the personality are determined in this case by the predominantly instinctive nature of habits and do not have support in its mental world, knowledge, beliefs and views. The transition of the mental process to a strong-willed urge is possible only with the known energy of the first, so a similar phenomenon is observed even in people with developed will at times of fatigue and represents one of the persistent symptoms of neurasthenia, which affects not so much the quality of mental processes as the energy of mental processes.