ABSTRACT
Though a distinction was drawn between mind and matter as early as Plato and St Augustine, Descartes was the first philosopher to state the distinction between the two clearly. He held mind to be diametrically opposite to matter. While matter for him was all public physical existents like rocks, chairs, tables, and so on, mind for him was a non-physical substance whose essential nature is thinking, and by it he meant something that differentiates a person from other things. Persons are different from other things like rocks and chairs, and mind is that which names the difference. It was held by Descartes that mind is a private entity and all the mental acts, such as thinking, believing, meaning and understand ing, are private processes. They are private to each individual because, it is held, they are directly accessible only to the respec tive bearers. This view gives rise to the following problem:
In our day-to-day life we communicate our thoughts, feelings, intentions, and other mental acts, or psychical processes, to each other by speaking or writing. Speaking and writing are physical processes that take place in the external, public world; but the mental processes which they express are private. This asymmetry between language and mental processes gives rise to the following questions:
(a) What are the connections of speech with language on the one hand, and with mental processes or acts on the other?
