The mind is one of the strangest things in the world. You cannot find it, touch it, but you can be born with it, and you can also develop it. Many people have this to some extent, but still... what is the mind? Let's look at the answer below.
Definition
In general, the mind is the totality of a person’s ability to do such things as thinking, cognition, perception, memorization, logic and others. It is determined by sensations, desires, memory, emotions, character, proper upbringing in childhood and many other factors. Mind and intelligence are, as a rule, two inseparable and very interconnected concepts. The level of intellectual abilities greatly influences a person. Becoming smarter on your own is still possible and depends on the person more than on genetics. And it is worth considering that only a healthy human brain is necessary for the manifestation of intelligence.
In the usual sense, smart is a person who is capable of thinking, distinguished by intelligence, good memory and erudition. As a rule, he has a broad outlook, high intelligence and the ability to get out of complicated situations both in life and in chess or mathematical problems, for example.
Signs of Mind
All manifestations of mental abilities are a very elusive thing. The fact is that all this can also be different and manifest itself in different things. No one will give a definite answer to what the mind is. Because for some it manifests itself in the knowledge of several languages, for others - in the ability to memorize very well, for others - in the fact that they play excellent chess, and in others - in the fact that they can understand mathematics very well, etc. d. Moreover, all this is purely individual and is often combined with each other in a person. Also, people who are often called smart are those who very easily find contact with any people, are talkative, very socially oriented, and people think that they will achieve a lot.
As for how a person determines whether another has intelligence? Here everything depends only on subjective opinion. Usually people who seem smart to us are people who take many things seriously, speak very convincingly, and tell many interesting things that few people know about. But for the most part, most people pay attention to the image as a whole. For example, some people think people with glasses or those who are silent a lot are smart.
Now that we have learned what the mind is, let's move on to the types of consciousness.
Kinds
If we consider the mind as consciousness, then we distinguish primary and secondary varieties. Let's look at what this means.
- The so-called primary mind is our awareness of such basic senses as hearing, touch, smell, sight, taste.
- But all our feelings are called secondary: love, fear, respect, hatred, etc. Thus, this type of mind is all our concepts, thoughts after perceiving an object and things with our senses.
The differences between these components are only in the way of cognition. The secondary mind is responsible for more complex feelings that only a person can have (all his likes and dislikes, for example). We first see an object with the help of vision - a mug, and then we can remember that this is our favorite color of it, and understand that we like the mug. But both types of mind are interconnected.
Famous smartest people
There have been many incredibly smart individuals in human history. Many of them were inventors, pioneers, innovators in the field of something. For example, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Aristotle, Plato, Nikola Tesla, Galileo, Archimedes... This list goes on and on. Let's look at just some of the smartest people in the world.
Stephen Hawking is an incredibly famous physicist in the world. He developed string theory, but this is far from his only achievement.
There are such smart people who, in terms of their IQ, are record holders in the Guinness Book of Records. For example, Korean prodigy Kim Ung-Yong. He has an IQ of 210. At the age of 4, he already knew several languages and understood mathematics. He graduated from university very early, and at the age of 8 he was invited to study at NASA.
Another famous mathematician prodigy is Terence Chi Shen Tao. At the age of 13, he received first place in the International Mathematical Olympiad. And at 20 he already received his doctorate. According to some sources, his IQ is 230.
But Christopher Hirata is an astrophysicist. At the age of 13, he won the International Physics Olympiad. His IQ by that time was 230. He graduated from university at the age of 16.
Andrew John Wiles became interested in Fermat's unproven theorem as a child. He couldn't prove it as a child, but he succeeded as an adult. For this he was awarded the Abel Prize.
How to develop mental abilities in a child?
This stage of education should not be missed under any circumstances, since if you do not work with the child, then in the future, when he becomes a teenager or adult, he may have problems lagging behind his peers.
In order for a child to grow up smart, you need to give him toys aimed at developing motor skills, logic, intelligence, showing talents, etc. A child’s mind at an early age is very susceptible to absorbing information like a sponge and easily assimilating it. Therefore, it is worth taking advantage of it.
It is also advisable to ensure that the child has contact with peers. This will help him socialize, and this factor, as is known, can also significantly affect mental development. For this purpose, children are taken to kindergarten. They also pay due attention to activities that develop reading and other skills. Another advantage is that when studying with other people, and not with parents, the child will want to be less lazy and tired.
Parents should also give very due attention to teaching reading. Introduce this gradually and in no case put pressure if the child is tired and no longer wants to study, since in this case he may develop a dislike for this process. You shouldn’t neglect dialogues with your child; you need to not only answer his questions, but also ask them yourself, so that he learns to express his thoughts and speak better.
How to develop your mind as an adult?
There are a number of tips that will help anyone become smarter and more erudite:
Intelligence and knowledge are also very strongly connected, but to get the latter, you need to develop and learn a lot of new things. Traveling, reading the news, communicating with other people and, of course, reading books are very helpful to broaden your horizons and general erudition. They help not only to learn new things and experience emotions, but also affect memory, overall maturity and many other things. There are many books also that are dedicated to developing the mind. We will consider them.
Useful books
There are manuals that talk about how the brain works, about intelligence and how to develop the mind.
Instead of a conclusion
What is mind? These are human thinking abilities along with logic, intelligence, memory and other important components. Fortunately, this can be developed in adulthood.
« Religion is reason.
He who has no reason has no religion ».
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)
When a portrait of a person is drawn up, in addition to the events of his life, achievements and successes, they also talk about his character traits. And an important place among the “characterological” descriptions is given to reason. Or rather, the degree of reasonableness.
But here, too, subjectivity is inevitable. What one considers to be a manifestation of reason, another refers to something else. For example, if a person gave in to avoid conflict with a stubborn opponent, someone might attribute this step to cowardice and inability to protect their interests. And some would describe it as a diplomatic move.
Among the signs of intelligence there are such as education, literacy, deep knowledge of any subject, scientific activity, success in life, etc.
Reasonability is largely associated with a person’s position in life.
In my opinion, speaking about the mind, it is appropriate to “ascend” to the question of the meaning of life. If a person considers worldly prosperity and well-being to be the meaning of his life, then all his actions are quite “reasonable”, which will one way or another lead him to this goal.
Here, it seems to me, a distinction should be made between the concepts of “mind” and “reason”.
The mind facilitates the execution of the process, the completion of the action. It answers the “how” question.
The mind determines the expediency of performing an action, the need to obtain a result, or the “necessity” without it. It answers the questions “why?”, “why?”, “for what?”.
For example, if a person works for a long time on a project whose efficiency is ultimately very low, then no matter how well the job is done, one has to doubt the wisdom of spending so much effort, money and time on it.
The mind is like a soulless machine. He is not interested in the value of the actions performed. But the mind is an indicator that determines whether it is worth it / not worth it, whether it is necessary / not necessary.
But let's return again to the connection between reason and the meaning of life - the trajectory of human destiny.
Why? Because it is unacceptable for a reasonable person, who with attention and careful consideration can choose objects of everyday use, work and a life partner, not to pay more attention to his soul, which is of greater value than the possession of transitory things.
The priority for a reasonable person is to take care of his own soul, for the actions of which he is responsible not only in this life, but also beyond it. It is no coincidence that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) called the victory over its dark side a great jihad. And Islam, as a religion, is the best frame for every soul.
Thinking about the fate of great non-Muslim scientists, I feel regret that such minds, having devoted the best they achieved to the development of the world, science, art, disappeared without taking care of themselves.
Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Freud and thousands of others. Who doubts the power of their minds? But how unhappy they were and how badly some of them ended up! The question arises: what do modern young people hope for, who are looking for the truth and answers to pressing questions in the works and sayings of such people? Brothers and sisters should be careful with everything that is said by non-followers of the Sunnah and Qur'an, careful with everything that does not correspond to them. And Allah knows best!
So, the main sign of intelligence is adherence to Islam.
When the angel Gabriel (peace be upon him) brought three gifts (reason, faith and conscience) in the form of beautiful pearls to the Prophet Adam (peace be upon him) and offered to choose one of them, the prophet (peace be upon him) chose reason. Angel Gabriel (peace be upon him) said about faith and conscience that they can return, since Adam (peace be upon him) chose reason. But faith refused to return, saying that Allah ordered her to stay close to reason. Conscience also refused to leave, since “Allah ordered us to always have faith.” Where there is reason, there is faith and conscience.
« The believer's tool is the mind “, said the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).
As stated above, reason is the indicator that distinguishes truth from error, right from wrong. And this distinction occurs not in the context of worldly short-term benefits (such as meeting current needs, for example), but in the context of the prohibitions and permissions of the Sunnah and the Koran. Everything that is prohibited by Islam is a hidden or obvious evil for a person, and everything that is permitted is good. It turns out that the mind always serves for the benefit of a person, even if at a certain moment its use “causes” some inconvenience.
The one who has stronger faith is more intelligent. And how does it manifest itself? Of course, faith is not fanaticism, not blind adherence to dogma. Originating in the soul, faith finds its manifestation not only in the general direction of a person’s development and movement, but also in how he behaves on certain parts of the path - in different situations. Evidence of faith is his attitude towards people, towards life, towards the world and the last life, the positivity, joy and benefit that he brings to the environment with his good behavior inherent in true believers. When the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked what qualities contradict the appearance of a Muslim, he replied that stinginess and bad character.
Reason promotes correct understanding of religion. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said that the Almighty gives understanding in religion to those for whom He wishes good.
In Arabic, the word for mind is “aql” (intelligence), and in English it is the word “sense”, which translates both “feeling” and “mind”.
In this regard, we can consider that the mind is “localized” not in the head, but in the heart. That's where faith is. After all, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “ Truly, faith is here ", pointed to his chest three times. The degree of intelligence is directly proportional to the level of iman. The stronger the iman, the more intelligence. It's like it's his core.
(51 votes: 4.7 out of 5)Archpriest Vadim Leonov
If the mind is darkened by sin (and this is common to all people after the Fall), then it does not have a clear experience of contemplation. A darkened mind does not rely on contemplation, but on sensory experience and the prudence of the rational power of the soul, i.e. reason. The mind that makes essential statements not on the basis of contemplation, but by reasoning, becomes reason (lOgoj). After the Fall, thinking became the main form of activity of the human mind, i.e. the mind manifests itself as intelligence.
If the saint speaks about the mind, then its localization in any part of the body is denied: “The mind is not attached to any part of the body, but is equally touched by the whole body, in accordance with nature, producing movement in the member subject to its action” [ 3, p. 35]. This idea was actively supported by the saint.
Distinguishing mind, reason and reason
Here are a few examples of how the holy fathers distinguish between these concepts.
Reverend: "Mind ( νοῦς ) is the organ of wisdom, and reason (lOgoj) is the organ of knowledge. The mind, moving, seeks the cause of beings, and the logos, richly equipped, examines only qualities. Search is the first movement of the mind towards the cause, and research is the discernment by the logos of the same cause through the concept. Mind is characterized by movement, and logos by discrimination through concept." .
St.: “It is one thing to contemplate, another to reflect. The mind first contemplates, and then thinks in various ways... The mind must learn to be silent, it must bare itself. Then he gains a sense of the secret, the super-intelligent and the divine.” .
Reverend: “A rational being has two abilities – contemplative (qewrhtikOn) and active (praktikOn). The contemplative ability comprehends the nature of existence, while the active ability ponders actions and determines the correct measure for them. The contemplative faculty is called mind (noan), the active faculty is called reason (lOgon); The contemplative ability is also called wisdom (sof...an), the active ability is called prudence (frOnhsin).
So, summarizing what has been said, we can conclude that in the patristic tradition there is a widespread clear distinction between the spiritual-contemplative and intellectual-rational abilities of a person, which is expressed in the use of the words “mind” ( νοῦς ), “reason” (lOgoj) and “reason” (diOnoia). This is a very important anthropological distinction, but there is a terminological vagueness in this matter that must be taken into account. In most cases, among the holy fathers, the word “reason” (diOnoia) denotes the ability to reason, thinking, and indicates the rational power of the soul. The word "mind" ( νοῦς ) most often indicates the spirit or contemplative ability of a person. And the word “mind” (lOgoj) can be associated with one or another word. What is its real meaning? From the above evidence it is clear that the convergence, and sometimes even identification, of the words “mind” and “reason” among the holy fathers is due to the fact that they refer to the same part of human nature - the spirit, and their difference is associated with the way the mind is realized. If the mind is turned to the contemplation of the spiritual world and God, then it is always called the word “mind” ( νοῦς ), because in this case his activity directly corresponds to the divine plan for him, through this activity a person gains divine revelations and a certain knowledge of the essences of the created world, which is true wisdom. If the mind turns to reasoning, constructing concepts, and dialogues, then it is called reason and its fruit is knowledge about the visible world. Reason is the reasoning mind.
The word "reason" (diOnoia) indicates the mental apparatus of thinking, the ability to create judgments, intellect, the thinking power of the soul. If we use a trichotomous scheme for describing human nature, then reason is a mental category, while mind refers to the highest spiritual part of a person, while reason is the mind turned away from contemplation, interacting with reason, relying on its spiritual powers and experience. Therefore, in a certain context, it is possible to identify the words “mind” and “reason”.
Since after the Fall the human mind is covered with a veil of sin and is not able to contemplate the supersensible world, it is used by man only partially in its lower function - as reason, i.e. as a tool for analyzing and comprehending sensory experience, as well as for putting this experience into words.
Although reason is based on reason, it is not limited by it and has in its arsenal other means and methods of cognition: reflection, intuition, imagery, symbols, imagination, etc. All of the above are reduced properties of the true mind ( νοῦς ). In particular, intuition - this is a spontaneously manifested contemplative ability of the mind, allowing one to understand the essence of an object or phenomenon without analytical reasoning. However, in a mind darkened by sin, this ability is usually not detected or manifests itself extremely unexpectedly, most often in extreme situations. Modern man cannot possess this ability all the time. Attempts to activate this sphere of a person with the help of certain occult techniques lead to damage to consciousness and the most severe forms of delusion, which the holy fathers talk about a lot, so attempts to artificially develop intuition in oneself are an extremely dangerous spiritual experiment on oneself. The contemplative ability of the mind, manifested in the lives of holy people, is a certain fruit of their spiritual life, but not the goal. This ability receives its correct revelation only on the path of a godly life, according to the word of the Lord: “ Seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (St., St. About storing feelings. M., 2000
Do you think an emotional person is smart or just wants to seem like one? Can we vigorously express our emotions or is it better to do without witnesses? These questions are very relevant because today it is common to be open in expressing your feelings. How to interpret it is another matter. Falling into hysterics at the slightest unobvious reason, shouting into the phone, becoming ostentatiously irritated in public places? Surely you come across similar examples or yourself sin with short performances with yourself in an unforgettable role. What's really happening: you draw attention to yourself, you think that your emotions may be interesting to others, you let off steam by involving other people. And all this under the pretext that you are simply “overly emotional.”
But if you look at the situation from the perspective of an adult, and not a three-year-old child: what irritates you? Most likely, some circumstance, something that does not go according to plan, not as you expected. And, anticipating the foggy unknown, you fall into fear and feel real stress. Again, from the outside, such behavior looks very doubtful, especially when we are faced with an adult who does not control the internal volcano of rage and anger. Hand on heart, is it really so difficult to cope with a typical situation for the hundred and twenty-fifth time? The taxi didn’t arrive, the colleague disrupted the meeting, the husband mixed up something.
If you think that you are so cool that you can openly react to a sudden downpour or a too hot cappuccino that was prepared for you in a cafe, then you are mistaken
First of all, no one is obliged to listen to your screams. Secondly, an adult must be able to control himself. In addition, we all accumulate experience in emergency situations. A reasonable person takes the most important things from his failures and draws conclusions, including in order not to be surprised in the future and not to give birth to negative emotions. A stupid person does not draw conclusions and is happy to be led by emotions, because why think with your head if “I’m all so emotional”?
So it’s not clear how to relate to emotions in general. On the one hand, I don’t want to turn into a cracker. On the other hand, emotions prevent you from thinking and often push you to do stupid things.
But there is also good news. Emotions are healthy. For example, you are angry and angry. Or you are friendly and want to smile to the whole world. When you are the cause and emotions are the effect, then everything is extremely good. Moreover, we women have developed emotional intelligence to the envy of all men, who often lack it. In this case, it is nice to talk about emotions as a character or temperament trait. When you have the resources to convey your thoughts expressively while remaining a reasonable person.
But splashing out emotions is a different story, associated with the inability to control and control oneself. Thoughtlessly show feelings. Hysteria or complaining. And that’s when the sacramental phrase usually sounds: “Emotions washed over me!” This also includes extreme impressionability and impulsive reactions. In fact, this is simply a bad habit and unconscious behavior, which is why you often want to compare it with stupid behavior. How else can you characterize wasted experiences? For a child, for example, they are certainly forgivable, but for you and me, they are not. Also say goodbye to the habit of making decisions based on an emotional impulse. Usually it is immediate, but the result lasts much longer.
