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telepathy
Table of Contents
telepathy
Table of Contents
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TELEPATHY

psychology
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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: Sep 28, 2023 • Article History
Table of Contents
Category: Science & Tech
key people: J.B. Rhine (Show more)
related topics: communication (Show more)
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telepathy, direct transference of thought from one person (sender or agent) to
another (receiver or percipient) without using the usual sensory channels of
communication, hence a form of extrasensory perception (ESP). While the
existence of telepathy has not yet been proved, some parapsychological research
studies have produced favourable results using such techniques as card guessing
with a special deck of five sets of five cards. The agent may simply think of a
random order of the five card symbols while the percipient tries to think of the
order on which the agent is concentrating. In a general ESP test the sender
concentrates on the face of one card at a time while the receiver tries to think
of the symbol. Both subjects are, of course, separated by a screen or some
greater obstacle or distance. Scores significantly above chance are extremely
rare, particularly as testing methods have become more rigorous.



mind
Table of Contents
mind
Table of Contents
 * Introduction
   
 * 
   Common assumptions among theories of mind
   
 * 
   Disputed questions
   

References & Edit History Related Topics
Related Questions
 * What is human intelligence?
 * Can human intelligence be measured?

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MIND

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mind, in the Western tradition, the complex of faculties involved in perceiving,
remembering, considering, evaluating, and deciding. Mind is in some sense
reflected in such occurrences as sensations, perceptions, emotions, memory,
desires, various types of reasoning, motives, choices, traits of personality,
and the unconscious.

A brief treatment of mind follows. The subject of mind is treated in a number of
articles. For a philosophical treatment of Western conceptions, see mind,
philosophy of. For scientific treatment of the so-called mental faculties, see
intelligence; animal learning; learning theory; memory; perception; thought. For
treatment of Eastern conceptions, in the context of the respective philosophical
traditions, see Buddhism; Hinduism; etc.

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time: Time in 20th-century philosophy of biology and philosophy of mind

To the extent that mind is manifested in observable phenomena, it has frequently
been regarded as a peculiarly human possession. Some theories, however, posit
the existence of mind in other animals besides human beings. One theory regards
mind as a universal property of matter. According to another view, there may be
superhuman minds or intelligences, or a single absolute mind, a transcendent
intelligence.




COMMON ASSUMPTIONS AMONG THEORIES OF MIND

Several assumptions are indispensible to any discussion of the concept of mind.
First is the assumption of thought or thinking. If there were no evidence of
thought in the world, mind would have little or no meaning. The recognition of
this fact throughout history accounts for the development of diverse theories of
mind. It may be supposed that such words as “thought” or “thinking” cannot,
because of their own ambiguity, help to define the sphere of mind. But whatever
the relation of thinking to sensing, thinking seems to involve more—for almost
all observers—than a mere reception of impressions from without. This seems to
be the opinion of those who make thinking a consequence of sensing, as well as
of those who regard thought as independent of sense. For both, thinking goes
beyond sensing, either as an elaboration of the materials of sense or as an
apprehension of objects that are totally beyond the reach of the senses.



The second assumption that seems to be a root common to all conceptions of mind
is that of knowledge or knowing. This may be questioned on the ground that, if
there were sensation without any form of thought, judgment, or reasoning, there
would be at least a rudimentary form of knowledge—some degree of consciousness
or awareness by one thing or another. If one grants the point of this objection,
it nevertheless seems true that the distinction between truth and falsity and
the difference between knowledge, error, and ignorance or between knowledge,
belief, and opinion do not apply to sensations in the total absence of thought.
Any understanding of knowledge that involves these distinctions seems to imply
mind for the same reason that it implies thought. There is a further implication
of mind in the fact of self-knowledge. Sensing may be awareness of an object,
and to this extent it may be a kind of knowing, but it has never been observed
that the senses can sense or be aware of themselves.

Thought seems to be not only reflective but reflexive, that is, able to consider
itself, to define the nature of thinking, and to develop theories of mind. This
fact about thought—its reflexivity—also seems to be a common element in all the
meanings of “mind.” It is sometimes referred to as “the reflexivity of the
intellect,” as “the reflexive power of the understanding,” as “the ability of
the understanding to reflect upon its own acts,” or as “self-consciousness.”
Whatever the phrasing, a world without self-consciousness or self-knowledge
would be a world in which the traditional conception of mind would probably not
have arisen.

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The third assumption is that of purpose or intention, of planning a course of
action with foreknowledge of its goal or of working in any other way toward a
desired and foreseen objective. As in the case of sensitivity, the phenomena of
desire do not, without further qualification, indicate the realm of mind.
According to the theory of natural desire, for example, the natural tendencies
of even inanimate and insensitive things are expressions of desire. But it is
not in that sense of desire that the assumption of purpose or intention is here
taken as evidence of mind.



It is rather on the level of the behaviour of living things that purpose seems
to require a factor over and above the senses, limited as they are to present
appearances. It cannot be found in the passions, which have the same limitation
as the senses, for unless they are checked they tend toward immediate emotional
discharge. That factor, called for by the direction of conduct to future ends,
is either an element common to all meanings of “mind” or is at least an element
associated with mind. It is sometimes called the faculty of will—rational desire
or the intellectual appetite. Sometimes it is treated as the act of willing,
which, along with thinking, is one of the two major activities of mind or
understanding; and sometimes purposiveness is regarded as the very essence of
mentality.




DISPUTED QUESTIONS

These assumptions—thought, knowledge or self-knowledge, and purpose—seem to be
common to all theories of mind. More than that, they seem to be assumptions that
require the development of the conception. The conflict of theories concerning
what the human mind is, what structure it has, what parts belong to it, and what
whole it belongs to does not comprise the entire range of controversy on the
subject. Yet enough is common to all theories of mind to permit certain other
questions to be formulated: How does the mind operate? How does it do whatever
is its work, and with what intrinsic excellences or defects? What is the
relation of mind to matter, to bodily organs, to material conditions, or of one
mind to another (see mind–body dualism)? Is mind a common possession of men and
animals, or is whatever might be called mind in animals distinctly different
from the human mind? Are there minds or a mind in existence apart from man and
the whole world of corporeal life? What are the limits of so-called artificial
intelligence, the capacity of machines to perform functions generally associated
with mind?



The intelligibility of the positions taken in the disputes of these issues
depends to some degree on the divergent conceptions of the human mind from which
they stem. The conclusions achieved in such fields as theory of knowledge (see
epistemology), metaphysics, logic, ethics, and the philosophy of religion are
all relevant to the philosophy of mind; and its conclusions, in turn, have
important implications for those fields. Moreover, this reciprocity applies as
well to its relations to such empirical disciplines as neurology, psychology,
sociology, and history.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Brian Duignan.


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