Biologically, Brain controls our thinking, ideas, decisions everything along with controlling each body parts. My question is, is there anything real as "mind "? If it's controlled by brain then how does brain controls the mind?
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2$\begingroup$ This might be a better question for the Psychology SE. Neuropsychology studies the relationship between the brain and the mind, to an extent. Neurology can touch on this, however, because self-report of experiences (as unreliable as it may be) is often the easiest way to get information about the mind. A patient describing depersonalization isn't describing anything that you can measure easily without talking to the person, for one. I'll try to answer below. $\endgroup$– Trixie WolfMay 23, 2015 at 23:35
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2$\begingroup$ @TrixieWolf - Psychology SE does not exist as separate entity anymore. Please refer users to Cognitive Sciences instead. $\endgroup$– AliceD ♦May 24, 2015 at 0:14
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1$\begingroup$ @AliceD Thanks. I apologise for not checking first (I belong there more than here anyway). $\endgroup$– Trixie WolfMay 24, 2015 at 0:19
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$\begingroup$ @TrixieWolf - Please don't apologize :) I have been pointed out to it myself by others :) Still going through your answer - it looks good, but have to dig it through before upvoting :) $\endgroup$– AliceD ♦May 24, 2015 at 0:22
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1 Answer
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The mind is an abstraction which arises from physical and chemical processes within the brain. For a crude analogy, think of the brain as an incredibly complex, self-modifying, multithreaded program. The mind would then be the abstraction arising from the behavior of the program as it runs. Consciousness would be the abstraction arising from the behavior of one particular thread in the program: a thread which has access to a limited buffer of its own (that thread's) behavior, and control over limited input and output from the body. All of the other (unconscious) threads may affect the conscious thread, but the conscious thread has very limited access to information about the behavior of the other threads.
Since the conscious part of the mind has access to information about its own behavior, there is actually some recursive looping going on when it comes to thinking and feeling. The feeling that this goes in circles somehow (which you seem to be expressing) is a common intuition, and it's almost certainly a correct one. But the manner in which this occurs is not well-understood, and it's definitely not well-understood within biology at the macro level because the brain is unbelievably complex and plastic. We really don't have a clue how to begin modeling the brain's processes. This is one reason artificial intelligence is still extremely crude today (despite what Elon Musk and Bill Gates may try to say).
If you want to read a scientifically-inspired theory of from whence consciousness comes, and of how it arises from the brain, I would recommend the book Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. Douglas does a good job of combining computational theory with biology, music, and art to illustrate a theory of consciousness the reader can grasp even if you don't have a strong background in any of those subjects.
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2$\begingroup$ +1 - You should definitely check out Cognitive Sciences too! But there's definitely overlap, so don't just run away - expaND :) $\endgroup$– AliceD ♦May 24, 2015 at 0:27
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1$\begingroup$ The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose is another book on the subject that's worthwhile. $\endgroup$– ebrohmanMay 25, 2015 at 2:25