Mentality

Mentality is rationality. Rationality pertains to ratios. Ratios are about relationships and proportions. Mentality, mind, intellect, reason, rationality - all these terms describe the ability to reason: to recognise proportions, relationships, correlations and ratios in the world.

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    Definition of Mentality

    Mentality is what produces thoughts in consciousness. Thoughts are mental symbols, 'virtual' representations of reality in our minds.

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  • A word cloud with terms related to emotions, feelings, and perception such as feeling, emotion, response, attitude, perception, thought, fear, anxiety, bias, reflex, stimulus, and behavior in various colors and sizes.

    Anatomy of Thought

    The cerebral cortex of the brain is responsible for human thought and performs various functions, such as cognition, complex thinking, reading, speech etc.

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  • Close-up of a woman with detailed floral face paint, including pink and white flowers, leaves, and abstract colors, with bright blue eyes and dark makeup, touching her hair.

    Perception

    Perception is a mix of two faculties: the senses gathering information and the comprehension of that information by our mentality.

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  • Person in a blue shirt and red beanie writing on a whiteboard with complex flowcharts and diagrams.

    Development of Thought

    The goal of mental development is to create an inner mental structure that fully accords with reality. Such a mental structure is a network of thoughts meant to explain reality.

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    Knowledge

    Thoughts are mental images of physical reality and the key to comprehending the world. The goal of the mind is to put facts into a system of thought that agrees with reality.

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  • Scientists in protective suits working with a large satellite or spacecraft component in a clean room.

    Science

    Science is a never ending mental enterprise to explain reality that turns out to be infinitely complex and seemingly filled with a multitude of problems and mysteries.

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    Ethics for Mentality

    When mentality is used to draw conclusions, rational motive becomes the motivation for decisions. “Mental ethics” is the intellectual freedom to think your own thoughts.

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It is remarkable that the word 'rationality' contains the word 'ratio'. Ratio is about a relation between things, and that's what mentality is about:

The ability to recognise relations, patterns, connections and contexts.

Mentality (intellect, mind, reason) is an inner structure that puts all information from the outside world into a context. That's how comprehension arises. If you can't designate a thing into its correct place, you will either not comprehend it or you will misunderstand it. All loose facts are useless unless they are understood in their correct relation to other things.

This 'putting-into-relation-to-other-things' is what constitutes actual thinking and the faculty of reasoning. All rational concepts and correctly understood facts have a relative meaning in their own contexts. Everything is interconnected and integrated, because reality is an interconnected and integrated whole. And it is the task of mentality to render that reality accurately. The level of accuracy with which the mind can mirror reality is an indication of the stage of development of the mental faculties.

It's important to cultivate mentality, so that emotionality is kept in check and rationality is prioritised when making decisions.

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