Now UTOKing: Mind
In this blog and video series, we present you with a curated set of definitions to better understand our place in today’s world through the lens of the UTOK system. In the previous blog and video, we shed light on behavior as a comprehensive and unifying concept in the natural sciences, and we emphasized its meaning across various levels and dimensions of existence in nature. Today, we clarify the concept of mind, and show how it relates to behavior, neurocognition, subjective conscious experience, and self-conscious reflection.
In our modern Western society, the term “mind” is a major source of confusion. It historically carries various interpretations, forming a tangled web of conflicting ideas. We can use UTOK to make music out of this noise and get clear on the concept of mind and what it refers to in the world.
In everyday language, the term “mind” is commonly used to describe our personal feelings, sensations, and thoughts as we experience them subjectively. This is exemplified by the familiar question: “what is on your mind today?”
The primary scientific meaning is different. Shaped by the cognitive revolution of the 1950s, the concept of mind in cognitive science is generally defined as the neuro-information processing that takes place within the nervous system. This viewpoint emerged largely as a response to the behaviorist notion that the mind can be characterized by observable behaviors that can be measured from a third person perspective. Additionally, influenced by the scientific and philosophical advancements of the European Enlightenment, certain thinkers exclusively associate “the mind” with the higher level self-conscious processes that characterize human reason. Some lines of thinking, such as that endorsed by Benardo Kastrup, even generalize the concept of mind to describe the entirety of reality.
UTOK introduces a fresh perspective on this important concept. Grounded in the ToK System, UTOK introduces the concept of Mind with a capital M, referring to a distinct dimension of existence. Specifically, it is the dimension of Minded Animals that exists above the dimension of Living Organisms and below the dimension of Cultured Persons.
This move serves a crucial purpose: to highlight the differentiation between animal behaviors and the behaviors of organisms and objects, emphasizing the presence of a minded aspect in animal behavior. That is, unlike entities like trees or rocks, animals demonstrate a functional awareness and responsivity to their environment, coupled with the ability to coordinate the movement of their body as a whole.
Humans, as hominid primates, also exhibit mental behavior, although with the added capacity of using language to justify our thoughts, feelings, and actions. With this foundation for the concept of Mind in place, we can uncover UTOK’s novel taxonomy for clarifying “the mind”.
The Map of Mind
UTOK organizes the primary referents for mental processes in its Map of Mind framework.
The Map of Mind divides mental processes into different types, identified by numbers (1, 2, and 3) and into different points of view, identified by letters (“a” and “b”).
Mind¹ encompasses the domain of neurocognitive activity, which is common to both animals and human persons. Within Mind¹, Mind1a pertains to the internal neurocognitive processes occurring within the animal that can be observed externally with technologies such as EEG. On the other hand, Mind1b refers to the overt mental behavior exhibited by the animal as it interacts with its environment.
Mind² is the domain of our subjective experience of being, which can only be observed from our individual, unique interior perspective. Since this “witnessing” aspect of mental behavior cannot be directly observed from an external perspective, we cannot definitively determine whether animals other than humans possess it. However, it is reasonable to assume that vertebrates are likely to possess Mind², and plausible that creatures like insects do also.
Mind³ is the domain of our self-reflective conscious awareness, mediated by language. According to UTOK, this domain is unique to human beings and is characterized by our capacity to provide justifications for our thoughts, feelings, and actions on a social stage. Like with Mind¹, there are two distinct aspects of Mind³: Mind3a and Mind3b.
Mind3a corresponds to our private narrator that engages in inner speech or self talk, and where we reflect upon and interpret our experiences of the world. Mind3b represents the portion of our mental experience that we share with the world. It is the portion of our mind that engages in public narration and communication, allowing us to express our thoughts and engage in social interactions.
In sum, through a UTOK lens, the concept of mind can be understood as follows: Mind encompasses the behavior of minded animals on the Mind plane of existence, and it includes three domains of mental processes: Mind¹ represents neurocognitive functions within animals and between animal and environment, Mind² refers to the subjective conscious experience of being, and Mind³ represents self-reflective human processes mediated by language-based justifications. This taxonomy provides a unique framework for understanding the mind as a multifaceted emergent property within a naturalistic, coherent worldview.
