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Philosophy of Mind
What Is a Thought?
Mental experiences are weird
The mind is a strange thing. We feel so familiar with the mind, and yet, we don’t know what it is exactly. Where did it come from and does it even belong to us? Apparently, the mind is filled with these things we call thoughts, and they tend to arise and disappear spontaneously — outside of our control. They’ll control us, too, if we’re not careful. So, we should decide what these thought-things are if we’re going to continue to live with them.
Recently, I’ve written quite a bit about the nature of consciousness and waking life. Thoughts fill our consciousness, but we wouldn’t say they’re the same thing as consciousness. I think of consciousness as the backdrop — the stage that’s set for the thoughts to come and play.
Thoughts can be judgments, feelings, reactions, experiences, and…what can they not be? That’s the question. Since everything we know is a thought, then what isn’t? We live our lives assuming that there is a world “outside” us where we actually live, and thoughts are inside us. But physical objects are only known to us as thoughts and experiences. Our lives are mental activities.
Is a table a solid object with four legs or is it a thought?
