The Default State Philosophy of the mind

The Default State: Philosophy of the mind By Ramesh Kanthilal
2018 | 36 Pages | ISBN: 1521348006 | EPUB | 1 MB
This short book provides a theory of how the mind perceives its environment. The central idea of the book is the concept of the default state or the natural state of a human being and the reference point of all experiences. This book argues that positive and negative perceptions of both physical and mental experiences are formed relative to this default state. Thoughts and emotions are an integral part of this model, so this is where the book begins. After a providing a framework for the interaction of thoughts and emotions, the default state is explained in detail in Section II. The book ends with a discussion of some implications of this theory, and in particular, the impact on happiness (Section III) and motivation (Section IV). The content was originally developed simply for the interest of better understanding the creation and interaction of three things – thought, feeling, and action. While the following was created by observing specific life events and reactions to them, the conclusions are likely universal and will apply to the reader as well, resulting in a better understanding of perceptions and motivations. These observations were originally recorded to keep track of ideas so they could be expanded and refined over time with a priority placed on keeping the material short and to the point. This was most easily done in bullet points and that style has been retained for this book. These things are never complete and the focus for the reader is on refining and evolving the thought process over the course of a lifetime by using observations on life experiences to develop this understanding.