What's a typical mind like? List of typical aspects?

[The Voice of Time]

So inspire us with your own example? What do you figure your mind to be like?

1) Spends a lot of time thinking about sex and imagining other individuals in cosy situations or situations where I can dominate or situations where I can worship women.
2) Is shifty, while in general strong self-control, the inner mood shifts quite rapidly and often, and often doesn't carry coherence (I also experience laughter that isn't necessarily good-feel laughter but instead a release of energy, I've also experienced laughing in the news of death of a dog I liked and loved).
3) I often experience neural shocks throughout the body that appears randomly but largely centred around re-imagining bad memories.
4) I often experience desperate needs for distraction and is easily bored. I often watch multiple movies simultaneously so I can distract myself from one to the other and keep my mind to the critical bounds by which it doesn't think too far ahead in the movie but maintains just enough information of all movies to keep up the diversity.
5) I often do math in my head, even wrong math (count wrong) to distract myself from boredom, including counting with my teeth by using them as drums inside my mouth.
6) I often imagine physical activity instead of doing it, the result is that I don't forget about it entirely, however.
7) I often think extensively about how to change things that are difficult to change.
I often experience despair and a lack of hope, but this is part of my shiftiness, I don't believe it even if I experience it, it's like watching a really scary horror movie even if you know it's just a movie.
9) I happen to experience sudden desires to dance and to move fast or act in ways that constitute a lot of random complex movements.
10)... seen enough... ?

Or is it a case of show ( by type of response) and not tell ( as in give specifics) ?

I wasn't planning on telling myself because I already have some idea about myself, I don't have the same idea about others, because I am only myself and not others, quite obviously. The thread was intended for my own empirical interests.

Do you think you can tell the truth of what is written ?

That depends upon which truth you are referring to... ?

Or how thoughts are conveyed ?

Well you can write thoughts down, speak them, sign them, express them in your face, and so forth. It is not so important what thoughts in specific you have ("I want cookie"), but more their general tendencies ("I often wake up wanting and heading for the cookie cupboard"). That expresses the workings of the mind, now if you rephrased that example ("When I wake up I grab a cookie from the cookie cupboard"), there is no implication of why you do it. And it's the reason stemming from thought, in this case a wanting, that's interesting. But perhaps if we abstract it a bit more we can get something more juicier ("I tendencate to desire sweet stuff in periods when my wife is gone"). The last one can tell us that ("wife gone = vacuum in life to be filled"), in this case filled by sweet stuff. In turn that tells us that as an aspect of the mind, from at least one sample individual, a person can constitute a set of ideas with a dependency upon the given individual that causes a substitutionary need in case of violation (likely because it is such a big set of ideas taking deep root). If you have a dozen people all with the same pattern, you could say that it's a tendency of minds to find dependencies in other human beings, and whatever other specifics you get in the results.

I'm not interested in individuals but in how it looks like when many people explain how a mind is like in action. The bold designates an act in the mind and italics designates an act upon mind.

[The Voice of Time]

I have no idea what my mind is like.

I'm quite confident you do unless you are a robot or script, I would guess you don't understand what is meant by it. Well now I've given examples aplenty.

I do have a certain perception of yours, VOT, and have noticed it has changed gradually over time here.

Given that I joined "Tue Feb 28, 2012 6:18 pm" which is more than a year ago and I don't stay still for a year, I find that very likely yes. Also it takes time to get familiarized with ones environment, and I've learned many new things in the course of a year.

[reasonvemotion]

Self examination, psychologically, can be a painful process.

One needs to be honest, but most importantly, one needs courage to traverse down this road.

"Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life".

[artisticsolution]

So inspire us with your own example? What do you figure your mind to be like?

1) Spends a lot of time thinking about sex and imagining other individuals in cosy situations or situations where I can dominate or situations where I can worship women.
2) Is shifty, while in general strong self-control, the inner mood shifts quite rapidly and often, and often doesn't carry coherence (I also experience laughter that isn't necessarily good-feel laughter but instead a release of energy, I've also experienced laughing in the news of death of a dog I liked and loved).
3) I often experience neural shocks throughout the body that appears randomly but largely centred around re-imagining bad memories.
4) I often experience desperate needs for distraction and is easily bored. I often watch multiple movies simultaneously so I can distract myself from one to the other and keep my mind to the critical bounds by which it doesn't think too far ahead in the movie but maintains just enough information of all movies to keep up the diversity.
5) I often do math in my head, even wrong math (count wrong) to distract myself from boredom, including counting with my teeth by using them as drums inside my mouth.
6) I often imagine physical activity instead of doing it, the result is that I don't forget about it entirely, however.
7) I often think extensively about how to change things that are difficult to change.
I often experience despair and a lack of hope, but this is part of my shiftiness, I don't believe it even if I experience it, it's like watching a really scary horror movie even if you know it's just a movie.
9) I happen to experience sudden desires to dance and to move fast or act in ways that constitute a lot of random complex movements.
10)... seen enough... ?

Is all this true? I think it is very interesting and am glad you posted it as I was having a hard time understanding what you meant by "aspects of a typical mind".

I would not consider yours a typical mind...as I would have never guessed that anyone would have aspects such as yours. I am curious though now that you mention yours...what it means to be a "typical mind." Is it a good thing, a bad thing or a neutral thing to be typical?

I thank you for making me think of something new...or in a new way.

Since you showed me yours I will show you mine...but I am still unsure if I will be relating it the way you have....so I will use yours as comparison if you don't mind...I mean to 'get the ball rolling"...

1. Used to spend alot of time thinking about sex....not just dominate or situations I can worship men ( and by men...I mean only the ones I like....as I don't have time for the ones I hate...they are boring sexually to me)....but all types of sex...probably some fantasies I could get arrested for...lol. But now that I am older...I don't think of sex as often...only that I want to make sure the love of my life is satisfied with our sex life. His needs are as important as mine to me because I love him.
2.Is scared sometimes. But I keep it to myself...I would not want to bother anyone with my occasional bouts with terror. When I get my terror attacks I simply tell myself that tomorrow they will leave and all I have to do is ride it out til then...what do I fear? Basically everything...How will I afford health care, retirement, etc...will my children have good lives...will I outlive my friends and family....will something more terrible than death befall me...
3. I sometimes have turrets type symptoms...lol. Not uncontrollable...only maybe like little Freudian slips. They happen most often during absent mind experiences that I may encounter...like maybe when I am trying to forget a certain experience that happened and maybe it's too painful to think about...and so I don't...and instead I mutter something else which I was not thinking about but did not mean to say...it's difficult to explain...lol
4. I paint to ease the boredom...sometimes I paint the most hideous stuff...truly terrible but very freeing. Then I put it away and take it out later to fix it or change it. Sometimes I don't know something is horrible and I fool myself into thinking it's good. I cringe when I realize it's horrible and I feel exposed. Mostly because it makes me acutely aware that I did not know my own mind.
5.I sometimes recite repetitive children's songs to stop my mind from too much outside stimulus. I can't process alot of outside noise or other stimuli. If there is too much chaos in a day...I will sing those songs in my head in order to relieve stress.
6. When I am on a ladder painting a mural...I focus too much and sometimes forget where I am and just step off the ladder like I was on the first rung ....man that hurts! Paint goes flying...so now...when I am on a ladder...I tape my palette to the ladder so when I do that the paint remains put!

[The Voice of Time]

As true as it can be. I don't have a habit for lying.

Now if only somebody would follow up on you we could finally start getting results. And if we get one more after that we'll already be a crowd (4)

[marjoramblues]

<<I wasn't planning on telling myself because I already have some idea about myself, I don't have the same idea about others, because I am only myself and not others, quite obviously. The thread was intended for my own empirical interests>>

Thanks for your explanation and your list. You already have a small example of the way my mind works.
I am still unclear as to what you are hoping to achieve here...
Do you have a working hypothesis?

<<I'm not interested in individuals but in how it looks like when many people explain how a mind is like in action>>

You expect people to post a list of personal mental activities and behaviour so as to satisfy your curiosity ?
Granted it would be fascinating...but how is it philosophy? How do you think such a 'modern' list would compare with a historical list ?

[The Voice of Time]

You expect people to post a list of personal mental activities and behaviour so as to satisfy your curiosity ?
Granted it would be fascinating...but how is it philosophy? How do you think such a 'modern' list would compare with a historical list ?

I'm not interested in historical lists, I was interested in a list of present individuals (and I'm unsure if you are making an indication that philosophy is history, and if you are I'll have to remind you it is not). Just because something is empirical doesn't make it not philosophy, in fact, if that's what you mean I'll have to say it sounds rather silly. Science is a child of philosophy, not another species, so to speak. Call it "modern natural philosophy" if you need a word for it... I just have one word for it: curiosity.

You already have a small example of the way my mind works

Not really. If you go back and see you've not at any moment talked about your mind in actuality, and I'm not a mind reader or a psychoanalyst. But you don't have to, it's voluntary.

Do you have a working hypothesis?

I'm not conducting an experiment. I'm playing out my curiosity. I'm looking for interesting patterns.

[marjoramblues]

<<I'm not interested in historical lists>>

Fine. You don't think other minds of the past would be useful to discern 'patterns' or help you
<<... get inspiration for how I shall describe an actual mind in words, thinking about its practical features and not its faculties. Practical features are actual thoughts, actual emotions, given context and magnitude >>


<<I was interested in a list of present individuals >>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empirical_research

Fine. You are not conducting an experiment; however, I did have the thought that you just might have a vague,lurking question which you hoped any empirical data would answer...
Despite clarifying your original Q's...I still don't see this exercise as anything other than sheer nosiness...which I consider not the same as philosophical curiosity.

I may not have offered up a 10 point list to suit your particuar pattern; extrapolate.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extrapolate

[tillingborn]

Surely this is the most enlightening:

10)... seen enough... ?

I suspect that any patterns you discern will be typical Gaussian distributions. Most people will spend some time thinking about sex, some will do pointless arithmetic, the odd one or two will do the sums drumming on their teeth. But a typical mind is a jumble of activity that takes effort to make sense of, which is what philosophy is all about. I think you are wrong to dismiss history, I think that the way we think is conditioned by it. You say that you are conducting an empirical study, well empiricism is one of the key features of the Enlightenment, it is a recent and initially, local invention; minds are not typically empirical.
What I suspect you will find if you take this seriously, is that there are minds which are open to new ideas, typified by Socrates and his admission that he actually 'knows' nothing, and minds which are more comfortable being padded by woolly absolutes, typified by Socrates and his wish for order and clarity.

[The Voice of Time]

I suspect that any patterns you discern will be typical Gaussian distributions.

Patterns don't have to be math.

Most people will spend some time thinking about sex, some will do pointless arithmetic, the odd one or two will do the sums drumming on their teeth.

I was hoping to abstract it once I had information to abstract from. Not count the number of "incidences" but figure out a pattern of reason for why for instance people would do that.

But a typical mind is a jumble of activity that takes effort to make sense of, which is what philosophy is all about.

Which is why I don't want a single specimen.

I think you are wrong to dismiss history, I think that the way we think is conditioned by it.

I think it's absolutely right not to mix that which may have happened in the far past with that which actually happens now when our interests are that which happens now. It's like trying to explain the composition of coke from a recipe you had from 50 years ago!

You say that you are conducting an empirical study, well empiricism is one of the key features of the Enlightenment

And why should Enlightenment bother me?

it is a recent and initially, local invention

What the fuck did I read that right... did you say "recent invention"? Did you say "Local invention"? Do you happen to live near Spinoza's headquarters in the Netherlands or David Hume's home in Scotland? Because there's not a single Enlightenment philosopher from my home-country and much less so anywhere near the villages and towns and cities I've lived in.

minds are not typically empirical.

And what is consciousness and acts of the mind (wanting, desiring, thinking, feeling, enjoying, liking, loving, hating) then?

What I suspect you will find if you take this seriously, is that there are minds which are open to new ideas, typified by Socrates and his admission that he actually 'knows' nothing, and minds which are more comfortable being padded by woolly absolutes, typified by Socrates and his wish for order and clarity.

In a postmodern society we tend to be a little of everything. I don't think it will be that interesting to see how open or closed a mind is unless they are so a great deal. Which might of course be the case, one never knows before one sees.

[tillingborn]

Well I'm not entirely clear what you hope to achieve, but if it's any help:

1) Spends a lot of time thinking about sex and imagining other individuals in cosy situations or situations where I can dominate or situations where I can worship women.

I don't spend as much time thinking about sex as I used to; I probably spend more time worrying that I ought to think more about sex. I spend very little time thinking about other people's cosiness and I think the idea of dominating or worshiping women is a bit creepy.

2) Is shifty, while in general strong self-control, the inner mood shifts quite rapidly and often, and often doesn't carry coherence (I also experience laughter that isn't necessarily good-feel laughter but instead a release of energy, I've also experienced laughing in the news of death of a dog I liked and loved).

I'm not sure you mean shifty in the sense that a native speaker would, it implies furtive and dishonest and I think you might just mean that yours shifts, or that you have mood swings. Well, I think we are all on the bi-polar spectrum, I have my moods, but bouts of nervous laughter are rare these days. Can't say I laughed when my dog died, he was run over in a very unfunny way.

3) I often experience neural shocks throughout the body that appears randomly but largely centred around re-imagining bad memories.

Nope, that's not something I suffer from.

4) I often experience desperate needs for distraction and is easily bored. I often watch multiple movies simultaneously so I can distract myself from one to the other and keep my mind to the critical bounds by which it doesn't think too far ahead in the movie but maintains just enough information of all movies to keep up the diversity.

I very rarely get bored, but the fact that I find everything interesting is a crashing bore to others.

5) I often do math in my head, even wrong math (count wrong) to distract myself from boredom, including counting with my teeth by using them as drums inside my mouth.

Don't remember ever doing that.

6) I often imagine physical activity instead of doing it, the result is that I don't forget about it entirely, however.

Yes, I imagine sitting down, but I get precious little time to do it.

7) I often think extensively about how to change things that are difficult to change.

It took me a while to work out that thinking by itself doesn't achieve anything, I try to spend more time doing these days.

I often experience despair and a lack of hope, but this is part of my shiftiness, I don't believe it even if I experience it, it's like watching a really scary horror movie even if you know it's just a movie.

I used to, but I think that was partly because I didn't know how to break things down into manageable chunks. I know what you mean about not believing it and I think that is very wise. I got to the stage that if I felt miserable, I would just embrace it, because worrying about worrying makes it much worse.

9) I happen to experience sudden desires to dance and to move fast or act in ways that constitute a lot of random complex movements.

I happen not to.

10)... seen enough... ?

You tell me. Anyway, best of luck with it.

Patterns don't have to be math.

They don't have to be bell curves, but does it make sense to call something which cannot be described mathematically a pattern?

I think it's absolutely right not to mix that which may have happened in the far past with that which actually happens now when our interests are that which happens now. It's like trying to explain the composition of coke from a recipe you had from 50 years ago!

Given the antiquity and influence of, say christianity, I do think it is worth understanding at least some ideas from the far past.

What the fuck did I read that right... did you say "recent invention"? Did you say "Local invention"?

Well, perhaps not to you; localised would be a better description and I stand corrected. My point is that you could draw a 500 mile circle around Luxembourg and have nearly all the major figures inside.

minds are not typically empirical.

And what is consciousness and acts of the mind (wanting, desiring, thinking, feeling, enjoying, liking, loving, hating) then?

Empirical data is generally taken to be sensory information we receive from objects which are believed to be external. The things you list are subjective experiences, but I think you could argue they are empirical to you. Empirical reasoning is typified by induction, you make predictions based on past experience, or history as some people call it. I suspect that my appreciation of history is down to the fact that I have rather more than you, it's a good thing to have, but having more future is better.

[SpheresOfBalance]

Mine's blank pretty much of the time. But this is the way I originally typed it: Minds blank pretty much of the time.

No longer as spontaneous as you seem to be, old and worn out?
These days I have the thoughts that I've already seen everything, that life has nothing new for me. That it's the 'same old story, same old song and dance, my friend,' just BS.
That all the BS people fling at each other, matters not, from it's conceptualization, as they're all going to die, and is actually why they bother in the first place, out of fear.
That everyone only thinks their drama matters, so as to bide their time, to ignore the unpleasantness associated with their ultimate ends.
That everyone scrambles to grab at scraps, because the 'me' thing, is the thing to do, I mean everyone does it, right?
That the human construct is largely, if not completely a sham.
That no one really care's for anyone, that they don't really know what love is, except when it comes to themselves, or at least they think so.
That we have come to a point when the snowball of self-interest crashes into reality.
Sure I think about sex, but find it less and less each day.
That the fervor with which I used to attack things, has waned.
I guess I'm kind of dead already!
There is a small spark still searching for the light in humanities heart, optimistic, hoping they'll get it one day, as it's not money or power, or things, as they're still going to die, none of that really matters.
Now if they all joined hands and sang the song of life, well that would be another story, wouldn't it?
So in that respect I'm like you, taking on insurmountable things, if only in my minds eye.
Nothing I can do or say will change anything!
No one ever listens, as they struggle with their own version of 'growing up,' understanding the point of it all.
If only there were a more intelligent species that I could go to to ask those questions, as surely an intergalactic species would have the answers to more questions than we currently do.
I could then find something worth my attention, something new, some hope for the human race, as surely this intelligent intergalactic species could only be benevolent, assuming they transcended much of what we've had to face, to get where they are.
Yes I'm a dreamer of a far better life than the one that's been carved out for me in the legacy of man's solutions of self.

Does that give you and idea of what goes through my mind, of late?

I don't think it's very typical. And as far as aspects, I guess you can draw your own conclusions, as I wouldn't necessarily want to put them into words, assuming I could do them justice.