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Parsing The Mind With Homer, Jonathan B. Holmes

Bridgewater Review

How does one parse the mind? Do we categorize its functioning as mental or physical? Is it one big homogenous lump or a heterogeneous set of distinct abilities or mental faculties? Do we envision its workings to be like some kind of hydraulic mechanism or more like some kind of information processor? A large variety of possibilities have been offered over the centuries. Current models of the mind see it functioning like an information processor with numerous distinct modules carrying out individual tasks. Minds need to be excellent parsers, categorizers, and story tellers in order to get us by in …