Mind, Language and Ideas

'I think, therefore I am.', said Descartes, proving the existence of his mind to himself. How do we know that others have minds too? That their minds are as 'good' as ours? Do the animals have minds too? Does a newborn baby have a mind?

Descartes could prove to himself that he existed as he was aware of the concepts of 'thought' and 'existence'. He had a language to express it. We infer that animals have no mind as they are unaware of abstract concepts and have, at best, very limited linguistic skills. In fact, the progress the human race has made till date is solely based on its ability to grasp abstract concepts and communicate them to others. A newborn baby, with no concepts and no language, has no mind. Its mind develops after it is born. It is indeed bewildering to think of the fact that the progress of a society can be retarded, limited or accelerated by the nature of the language it uses. The freer a language is to incorporate new words and new expressions, the more exposed will its speakers be to new ideas. And it is these ideas that take us forward or backward. The colloquial language at any point of time reflects the past and the present of a society and determines its future to a great extent.
It is said that Homo sapiens is the only species that is aware of the fact that the individual members have to die. As Keynes so aptly put it, 'In the long run, we are all dead.' What happens to the mind after death? Is the religious concept of soul different from the concept of mind? If so, why do religions seek to punish the soul for the acts directed by the mind?

If the existence of mind depends on the brain being alive, mind is reduced firstly to a collection of thoughts and memories and finally to currents of electrons making and breaking chemical bonds on the way. How weird it is to think of the grand ideas of liberty, justice and equality as the result of the circulation of sodium and potassium ions in a specific manner!