Mind, Intelligence and Spirit

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Mind, Intelligence and Spirit

The mind is a collection of various classes of processes that can be studied empirically. To limit the field of mental processes we must follow the criteria of folk psychology. There are three kinds of mind: human, animal and mechanical. But the human mind is the paradigm or model of mind. The existence of mechanical minds is a serious challenge to the materialism or the mind-brain identity theory. Based on this existence we can put forward the antimaterialist argument of machines. Intelligence is a class of mental processes such that the mind is the genus and the intelligence is a species of this genus. The capacity to solve problems is a clear and definite criterion of intelligence. Again, like in the mind, the human intelligence is the paradigm of the intelligence. There are also three kinds of intelligence: human, animal and mechanical. Searle’s Chinese room argument is misleading because Searle believes that it is possible to maintain a sharp distinction between syntax and semantics. The reasonable dualism in the brain-mind problem defends the existence of brain-mental processes, physical-mental processes, and non-physical-mental (spiritual) processes. Constitution of the personal project of life, self-consciousness and free volitions are examples of spiritual processes. Usually the intelligence has been considered the most important quality of human beings, but freedom, or the world of free volitions, is a more specific quality of human beings.

I. The Concept of Mind

Contrary to a long philosophical tradition, it is very important to emphasize that the mind is not a "substance" or res . If the mind were a substance its study would be beyond the empiricist domain of science and would belong to the extraempiricist domain of metaphysics. On other hand, if the mind were a substance it would be something individual.

Nevertheless the mind is a collection of various classes of processes that can be studied empirically. These processes are just the so-called "mental processes", in such a way that we can suggest the apparently vicious circle statement: mind is the collection of the different mental processes.

In order to avoid the circularity of this statement we have to describe the various classes of mental processes. Using concepts taken from the information theory we can distinguish, in the beginning, four main types of mental processes: 1) perceptions, i. e. organized reception of information, 2) memories or storage of information, 3) beliefs, that is, judgements about the received information, and 4) plans, namely, arrangements of information to act.

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