Chapter1 (Mind)

Part1 Philosophy of Mind and the Study of Mental Phenomena

We have two views of ourselves. One is scientific, such as biology or evolutionary history. The other, which is not strictly scientific, includes concepts of mental phenomena, which is formed in society and is called folk psychology by some philosophers. Traditional speculative philosophy mainly uses the concept of mind in a non-scientific perspective, so it is particularly important to examine the relationship between the two different ways of understanding. Crane rejects a misapprehensive view of Brentano, which presupposes that we don’t have a rough-and-ready understanding of what a mind is, one that can be sharpened by applying the concept of intentionality. But Crane argues that Brentano is not defining the mind, but trying to articulate it, to give a sufficiently clear and detailed description of mental phenomena.

Comment: I think these two ways of understanding ourselves have exhausted all possibilities, but the non-scientific way is too vague. So I think there are three positive ways to understand ourselves: common sense, philosophy and science. Common sense is an empirical approach, a direct experience of the present. Science and philosophy help us to grasp ourselves through concepts, the former experimental, the latter speculative. (Maybe theology has a lot of theories about the mind, but I don't know about it, but I do know that Buddhism has a very systematic theory about the mind. So theology might be another way.)