We’re always working on it. But thinking, or how we should think about thinking, is surprisingly difficult to pin down. For example, when I did VoxPop, several friends described the thoughts as “faint.” Others see them as sparklers, emitting chaotic flashes but containing a central light source that can be controlled.
All of this is clearly unscientific. But even experts don’t know much about what thoughts are, and the latest neuroimaging research suggests we may never truly determine how thoughts manifest in the brain. It suggests that.
“Put simply, No one really knows what thoughts are, but” Tim Bain a philosopher at Monash University in Australia and author of the following books: Thoughts: Very short introduction. Still, he says it is useful to consider his two aspects of thought: its content and its nature.
Karina Kristoff The definition does just that. “A thought is a mental state or set of mental states that involves some kind of content and a personal attitude toward that content, such as remembering, believing, imagining, etc.” says Kristof, who heads the cognitive neuroscience department. Thought Institute, University of British Columbia, Canada.
First, let’s consider the content. Thinking is not the same as perceiving or feeling. Everything involves putting something before the mind, so to speak, but thinking differs in that it is independent of the stimulus produced by what is being thought about.
In terms of how they arise, Christophe identifies three streams.
Source: www.newscientist.com
