0.13 How does the mind process information?  (Page 2/4)

Consciousness can also cause feelings or intellectual stimulation. What is that saying - that 'consciousness' can cause stimulation? That is basically just saying that someone is in a state of feeling in which they are largely aware of what they are feeling. So the question then is can someone direct what their feelings or thoughts are aware of? People have important feelings and less important thoughts and feelings. Can someones consciousness feel certain feelings better than other feelings? That person might more largely be aware of some types of stimulation more so than other types of stimulation then.

Different types of information could also be processed by the mind - not just different types of feelings. Feelings are also just communicative so they could fall under the title of 'information' in the mind. So feelings and thoughts are processed as information by the mind.

Mental representations

Different ideas, concepts and thoughts can interact in the mind. One idea can be a 'meta-idea' - an idea of another idea, or an idea could simply be associated with another idea. If different ideas produce different feelings and different amounts of feeling then an idea that is a meta-idea of another idea could produce a similar or associated feeling.

The ideas don't even have to be of each other - one idea could be a further reflection of another idea without the person being aware that that is occurring. Meta-representation (meta-ideas) do not have to be conscious - humans naturally reflect on stuff and feelings and thoughts or 'intellectualizations' naturally reflect and build on each other.

David Rosenthal proposed that a representation is only conscious if it is presented by a higher-order thought. However, I don't believe that to be completely accurate - representations could be simply thought about more without the person consciously thinking about it to themselves. Thoughts that aren't conscious naturally reflect on other thoughts or ideas or experiences and these concepts or 'understandings' build in the mind naturally by themselves. Furthermore, Any time someone becomes more conscious of something it could be the result of a feeling enhancing another feeling - not necessarily a thought enhancing another thought.

For instance - if someone 'has a feeling' for something and they then think more about it they don't need to necessarily be consciously directing that feeling (the further 'meta' feeling) because humans minds naturally reflect on things all of the time and they don't need to consciously say to themselves 'I need to think more about that'. It could simply be a feeling in their mind that triggered another feeling or there are possibly 'reflective feelings' whose purpose is to reflect and build and make more conscious other feelings. These feelings could be understandings of experiences or understandings of anything in life (though i would think that most understandings would be of experiences).

Florid vs pastel representations

Daniel Dennett suggested that there are representations that involve a sense of action or agency which he called 'florid' representations while 'pastel' representations are more basic intentions that do not necessarily involve as much intention.