Philosophy of mind is the philosophical study of the exact nature of
the mind, mental events, mental functions, mental properties, and
consciousness, and of the nature of their relationship with the
physical body. Two major schools of thought attempt to resolve the
mind–body problem: dualism and monism. Dualism can be traced back to
Plato and Aristotle in the West and the Samkhya school of Hindu
philosophy in the East and was most precisely formulated in modern
terms by René Descartes in the 17th century. Dualism asserts the
separate existence of mind and body. Monism, first proposed by Baruch
Spinoza, maintains there is only one substance. Substance dualists
argue that the mind is an independently existing substance, while
property dualists maintain that the mind is a jumble of independent
properties that emerge from the brain and cannot be reduced to it, but
that it is not a distinct substance.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_mind
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1792:
The New York Stock Exchange was formed.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Stock_Exchange)
1900:
Second Boer War: The Siege of Mafeking was lifted after 217 days.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Mafeking)
1902:
The Antikythera mechanism, the oldest known surviving geared
mechanism, was discovered in a shipwreck off the Greek island of
Antikythera.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism)
1943:
World War II: RAF Dam Busters successfully deployed bouncing bombs on
German dams in Operation Chastise.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._617_Squadron_RAF)
1995:
After 18 years as Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac was inaugurated as
President of the French Republic.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Chirac)
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Wikiquote of the day:
"There is no formula to it because writing every song, for me, is a
little journey... It's everything. It's the walk you take in the
morning, it's the night before, the meeting with people, landscapes,
the chats, all of that evolves in some way into melody, but I'm not
sure how it's going to happen. I'm dealing with the unknown all the
time and that is exciting." -- Enya
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Enya)