Mind

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For other uses, see Mind (disambiguation).

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A phrenological mapping[1] of the brain. Phrenology was among the first attempts to correlate
mental functions with specific parts of the brain.

Ren Descartes' illustration of mind/body dualism. Descartes believed inputs are passed on by
the sensory organs to the epiphysis in the brain and from there to the immaterial spirit.[2]
The mind is a set of cognitive faculties including consciousness, perception, thinking,
judgement, and memory.[non-primary source needed] It is usually defined as the faculty of an entity's thoughts
and consciousness.[3] It holds the power of imagination, recognition, and appreciation, and is
responsible for processing feelings and emotions, resulting in attitudes and actions.[citation needed]

There is a lengthy tradition in philosophy, religion, psychology, and cognitive science about
what constitutes a mind and what is its distinguishing properties.

One open question regarding the nature of the mind is the mindbody problem, which
investigates the relation of the mind to the physical brain and nervous system.[4] Pre-scientific
viewpoints included dualism and idealism, which considered the mind somehow non-physical.[4]
Modern views center around physicalism and functionalism, which hold that the mind is roughly
identical with the brain or reducible to physical phenomena such as neuronal activity.[5][need quotation to
verify]
Another question concerns which types of beings are capable of having minds.[citation needed] For
example, whether mind is exclusive to humans, possessed also by some or all animals, by all
living things, whether it is a strictly definable characteristic at all, or whether mind can also be a
property of some types of man-made machines.[citation needed]