ABSTRACT
What exactly is a mind? The question is one philosophers and nonphilosophers have struggled with throughout recorded history. According to some, minds are spiritual entities that temporarily reside in bodies, entering at birth (or perhaps conception) and departing on death. Indeed, death is simply a spirit’s taking leave of a body. Others imagine the relation between minds and bodies to be more intimate. Minds, they hold, are not entities. Minds resemble fists or laps: a mind is present when a body is organized in a particular way, and absent otherwise. Still others hold that minds are indeed entities, physical entities: minds are just brains.
