Topics Mind

Question What happens to thoughts once they are acknowledged? I.e. where do thoughts go once they have surfaced in the mind?

Accepted:
June 14, 2010

Comments

Great question! Undoubtedly there is a neurological basis for conscious thinking and so there is a sense in which the brain plays a role in sustaining thinking and the brain definitely has a location, BUT it is not clear whether thoughts themselves are the sorts of things that can have location. Does the thought "New York City is not the capital of New York State" have a certain size or weight or mass or color? It would be odd to think so. But let's consider where thoughts go, not in terms of spatial location, but in relationship to our conscious minds.

Some philosophers acknowledge that in addition to our conscious mental life there is the unconscious and the sub-conscious. The difference between these is not obvious, but in general the former is thought to be more difficult to retrieve or bring to the surface of full consciousness. Presumably you know many things or can be said to have lots of thoughts about subjects you are not consciously reflecting on now. This knowledge is sometimes called dispositional knowledge. When you are not actually playing the piano it may be true that you know how to play (or you have the disposition to play) because, under proper circumstances, you could play. So, one answer to the question of where thoughts go when you no longer are reflecting of them is that you either retain the thoughts sub-consciously (or maybe even unconsciously) or that they are what we might think of as dispositions (you are disposed to recall them). A fuller reply to your question would need to take into account the philosophy of memory.

Question What happens to thoughts once they are acknowledged? I.e. where do thoughts go once they have surfaced in the mind? Accepted:June 14, 2010

Question What happens to thoughts once they are acknowledged? I.e. where do thoughts go once they have surfaced in the mind?

Accepted:
June 14, 2010