How natural is it to think of thought as originating inside our heads?
When the ancient Egyptians mummified someone they discarded the brain, which they thought was useless. They believed that the heart was the organ of thought.
When I first heard this it seemed very strange, since the association of head and thought is so ingrained in our culture. It just seems so natural. If we have been concentrating hard on something, we may feel light headed or get a headache. When we get information overload we say we feel as if our head is going to explode.
Is the association natural? Were the Egyptians an anomaly? If not, then when did people realize that our heads are used for thought. Unlike the Egyptians, we associate the heart with love, though we know better, but this makes sense since our pulses quicken when we are feeling strong emotions.
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People also once thought the world was flat. To the unknowing, one could easily associate thoughts with the heart or gut as that is where thoughts will manifest nervous system stimulation from increased breathing and heart rate to full on knotted stomach and cold sweats. So IMO, yes it would natural to make that association.
it is natural.
The Egyptians did not have the same intellect as we do today, so the world was flat, the sun and stars orbited the Earth, and the heart did the thinking
I think the association is understandable, yes.
Physiological symptoms of arousal that are felt around the body (like @Cruiser describes) are generated in the brain, but the symptoms are experienced elsewhere in the body. Seeing as you can’t “feel” the brain sending signals to those body areas, such as the heart, it’s entirely understandable how one might think that those body areas, in isolation, were responsible for those symptoms, and perhaps, those emotions.
Just as we consider the heart as merely a pump, the ancient Eqyptians considered the brain to be merely a radiator; keeping the blood from overheating. Our present culture still carries a remnant of the ancient belief; as @LostInParadise said, we still metaphorically associate the heart with love. Also, a person quick to anger is said to be “hot blooded”
I recall an ancient Greek philosopher who figured that the function of the brain was probably to cool the blood in the body.
There was another Greek philosopher who got it right, though.
I’m not sure about either name. I think the first might have been Aristotle [0.55] and the second one Epicurus [0.65].
Edit: The first name was right, but the second guy wasn’t Epicurus, it seems. I can’t seem to find the right name.
Apart from the Egyptians, I always assumed ancient cultures knew the brain was for thinking. They certainly knew that decapitation meant instant death, whereas a stab wound to the thorax did not necessarily. I have always thought it intuitive that the brain is what thinks, since we can often read someone’s thoughts by their facial expression or the look in their eyes. Looks like I’ll have to research this further.
It is, now, natural.
“It is said that it was the Pythagorean Alcmaeon of Croton (VI and V centuries BC) who first considered the brain to be the place where the mind was located. In the 4th cent. BC Hippocrates, believed the brain to be the seat of intelligence (based, among others before him, on Alcmaeon’s work).”
From Wikipedia
Yeah it’s natural, but I’m sure most of us still think with our hearts every now and again.
Well..quite frankly. we should be thinking more with our hearts ( intuition ) than our minds.
The mind is in constant odds with the heart for most people.
The ‘gut’ feelings…heart intuition, often gets tossed aside when the mind jumps in to second guess the hearts intentions.
Most peoples minds are wild and undisciplined like runnaway horses…learning to use mind as a tool and get in touch with ones intuition is an important part of development.
@Fyrius It was Aristotle who believed the brain cooled the blood.
@marinelife
Yeah, I had already figured that one out. Thanks anyway.
There is the enteric nervous system, another place that we use to take in and interpret information.
Isn’t science exciting?
Sometimes it does seem that my stomach has a mind of its own.
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