Despite the fact that mind is a pre-scientific concept that dates back at least to the ancient Greek philosophies of Aristotle and Plato, it still occupies a central place as the subject matter of modern psychology and philosophy. Consider the titles of several recent books: How The Mind Works (by Steven Pinker), The Mind's I and Kinds of Minds (by Daniel Dennett), The Maladapted Mind and Mindblindness (by Simon Baron-Cohen), Wild Minds (by Marc Hauser), and The Mating Mind (by Geoffrey Miller). While the other sciences have moved well beyond their pre-scientific philosophical origins, psychology has made much less progress. Continuing to focus on mind as a primary subject matter keeps psychology mired in its philosophical roots and is a major obstacle to psychology becoming a true natural science.( Dreyfuss, Hubert L. 1984)
For most of us, it seems self-evident that we have minds. And probably most of us believe that humans have always had minds and that each of us is born with one. Nowadays, the term "mind" is sometimes used synonymously with the term "brain," which causes confusion by having two words for the same thing. Most people who use "mind" and "brain" interchangeably think that the brain is the physical basis of the mind. In my view, if one believes that mind and brain are synonyms, then the term "brain" should be used because it avoids all the metaphysical pitfalls associated with discussions about nonphysical entities.( Dreyfuss, Hubert L. 1984)
This story is not about how humans got their brains, however (although that is a much more scientific and, in many ways, more interesting question to answer). It is about how humans got the concept of "mind." We have brains, but there is no mind to be found among the physical structures of the brain........................
