Editing Mind (section)

=== Philosophy of mind ===
{{main|Philosophy of mind}}

Philosophy of mind examines the nature of mental phenomena and their relation to the physical world. It seeks to understand the "mark of the mental", that is, the features that all mental states have in common. It further investigates the essence of different types of mental phenomena, such as [[belief]]s, [[desire]]s, emotions, [[intentionality]], and consciousness while exploring how they are related to one another. Philosophy of mind also examines solutions to the mind–body problem, like dualism, idealism, and physicalism, and assesses arguments for and against them.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Stich|Warfield|2008|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NEGK_ZStddkC&pg=PR9 ix–x]}} | {{harvnb|Mandik|2014|pp=1–4, 14}} | {{harvnb|Kind|2018|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=oDhjDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA2010-IA3 Lead Section]}} | {{harvnb|Adams|Beighley|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=DlU6CQAAQBAJ&pg=PA54 54]}} }}</ref> It asks whether people have a [[free will]] or the ability to choose their actions, and how this ability contrasts with the idea that [[Determinism|everything is determined by preceding causes]].<ref>{{harvnb|Timpe|loc=§ Lead Section, § 3. Free Will and Determinism}}</ref>

[[File:Braininvat.jpg|thumb|alt=Diagram of a brain in a vat that is connected to a computer|The [[brain in a vat]] is a thought experiment to examine the nature of the mind and its relation to matter. It explores how a brain would experience reality if a supercomputer fed it the same electrical stimulation a normal brain receives.<ref>{{harvnb|Hickey|loc=Lead section}}</ref>]]

While philosophers of mind also include empirical considerations in their inquiry, they differ from fields like psychology and neuroscience by giving significantly more emphasis to non-empirical forms of inquiry. One such method is [[conceptual analysis]], which aims to clarify the meaning of concepts, like ''mind'' and ''intention'', by decomposing them to identify their semantic parts.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Stich|Warfield|2008|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=NEGK_ZStddkC&pg=PR10 ix–xi]}} | {{harvnb|Shaffer|2015|pp=555–556}} | {{harvnb|Audi|2006|loc=[https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/philosophy/philosophy-terms-and-concepts/philosophy § Philosophical Methods]}} }}</ref> [[Thought experiment]]s are often used to evoke [[intuition]]s about abstract theories to assess their coherence and plausibility. To do so, philosophers imagine a situation relevant to a theory and employ [[counterfactual thinking]] to assess the possible consequences of this theory. Influential thought experiments include [[Mary the super-scientist|Mary the color scientist]], [[philosophical zombies]], and [[brain in a vat]]-scenarios.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Brown|Fehige|2019|loc=Lead Section}} | {{harvnb|Goffi|Roux|2011|pp=165, 168–169}} }}</ref> Because of the subjective nature of the mind, the [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenological method]] is also commonly used to analyze the structure of consciousness by describing experience from the first-person perspective.<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Smith|2018|loc=Lead Section, § 1. What Is Phenomenology?, §6. Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind}} | {{harvnb|Smith|2013|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=6a03AAAAQBAJ&pg=PT359 335–336]}} }}</ref> The philosophical discussion of the mind has a long history, reaching back to [[Ancient history|antiquity]]. Influential contributions were made by [[Plato]] ({{circa|428–347 BCE}}), [[Aristotle]] (384–322 BCE), [[René Descartes]] (1596–1650), [[David Hume]] (1711–1776), [[Immanuel Kant]] (1724–1804), [[William James]] (1842–1910), and [[Gilbert Ryle]] (1900–1976).<ref>{{multiref | {{harvnb|Jaworski|2011|pp=359, 362, 371}} | {{harvnb|Flanagan|2005|pp=603–604}} | {{harvnb|Tanney|2022|loc=Lead section}} }}</ref>