Scientific Thinking 01

The Basic Functions of Human Mind

• The brain is a complex organ that controls thought, memory,

emotion, touch, motor skills, vision, breathing, temperature,
hunger and every process that regulates our body.
• The mind is the set of abilities responsible for all
mental phenomena.
• The issue of the nature of the relation between mind and
brain is called the mind-body problem.
The basic functions of the mind are:
• Thinking is the part of the mind that figures things out. It
makes sense of life’s events. It creates the ideas through
which we define situations, relationships and problems.
• Feelings are created by thinking — evaluating whether the
events of our lives are positive or negative.
• Feelings continually tell us: “This is how I should feel about
what is happening in my life.
• Wanting allocates energy to action, in keeping with what we
define as desirable and possible.
• There is an intimate, dynamic interrelation between
thinking, feeling, and wanting. Each is continually influencing
the other two.

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Scientific Thinking 01

• The variety of activities called 'thinking' includes at least:

reflecting, anticipating, deciding, imagining, remembering,
wondering, pondering, intending, believing, disbelieving,
meditating, understanding, inferring, predicting and
introspecting.
• All thinking has some subject matter. It does not make sense
to say there is thinking that is not about anything.
• Many of our actions are instinctive or automatic responses
to certain situations
• We begin to think when we are confronted with a difficulty,
perplexity, or problem, that is, an unfamiliar situation to
which we have no response ready
• Thinking therefore should first of all be distinguished from
day-dreaming.
• Thinking is essentially purposive, directed, constructive and
controlled.
• The problem may be a practical or a theoretical one.
• Thinking is the highest mental activity present in man. All
human achievements and progress are simply the products
of thought. The evolution of culture, art, literature, science
and technology are all the results of thinking.
• Thought and action are inseparable - they are actually the
two sides of the same coin.

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Scientific Thinking 01

:‫** أهم الكلمات‬

Eng. Ar.

Organ )‫عضو (في الجسد‬

makes sense of life’s events ‫يعطي ألحداث الحياة معنى‬

figures things out ‫يفهم األشياء‬

evaluate ‫يقيم‬

allocate ‫يخصص الموارد‬

reflecting = meditating ‫تأمل‬

anticipating = predicting ‫تنبؤ‬

inferring ‫استدالل‬

Distinguish ‫يميز بين‬

purposive ‫هادف‬

directed ‫موجه‬

constructive ‫بناء‬

controlled ‫خاضع للتحكم‬

instinctive ‫غريزي‬

automatic responses ‫استجابات آلية‬