Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Gerald Filson, Mind: The Power of the Human Spirit, bahai-library.com.
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Mind, process discussed earlier in the paper, that
holds promise for the future of humanity.
“the Power of the Résumé
Human Spirit” Le présent article met en corrélation les
concepts bahá’ís de la raison avec les per-
spectives de la philosophie. Il expose des
arguments provenant des deux sources en
GERALD FILSON
vue d’une compréhension non réductrice de
la raison humaine. Il fait valoir que même
Abstract si la science peut nous aider à mieux com-
This paper correlates Bahá’í concepts of prendre la raison, elle n’est pas suffisante
the mind with insights from philosophy. It dans cette quête car elle ne peut pas saisir
presents arguments from both sources for a pleinement comment la raison humaine fait
non-reductive understanding of the human l’expérience de la réalité. L’auteur passe en
mind and argues that, although science can revue le mode de connaissance conceptu-
help us advance our understanding of the elle de la raison, explore les implications
mind, it is not sufficient in this pursuit, as it du langage pour la philosophie de la raison
cannot capture fully how the human mind et examine comment l’activité scientifique
experiences reality. The paper reviews et le phénomène religieux permettent tous
the mind’s conceptual way of knowing, deux de nous éclairer sur les capacités et la
explores the implications of language for nature de la raison. L’auteur avance que le
philosophy of mind, and considers how the processus d’apprentissage dans lequel est
pursuit of science and the phenomenon of engagée la communauté mondiale bahá’íe
religion both shed light on the capacities peut servir de modèle pour faire interve-
and nature of the mind. After suggesting nir la raison humaine dans une entreprise
that the process of learning in which the collective visant l’amélioration du monde.
global Bahá’í community has embarked Il fait ensuite un retour à la philosophie
may serve as a model for engaging the hu- et affirme que si plusieurs philosophes
man mind in a collective enterprise for the contemporains soutiennent de manière
betterment of the world, it turns back to convaincante que la raison humaine ne se
philosophy to submit that, while many con- réduit pas à la causalité physique, la résis-
temporary philosophers persuasively argue tance des philosophes à l’idée d’une di-
that the human mind is not reducible to mension spirituelle de la raison humaine
physical causality, the philosophical resis- est extrêmement limitative. La faculté de
tance to a spiritual dimension of the human raisonnement des êtres humains démontre
mind is excessively limiting. The minds of des capacités qui transcendent la nature, et
human beings demonstrate capacities that une conception de la raison en tant que «
lie beyond nature, and a conception of the pouvoir de l’esprit humain » ou « âme ra-
mind as “the power of the human spirit” tionnelle » peut non seulement se révéler
or “rational soul” can not only be a fruitful fructueuse pour comprendre la raison, mais
way of understanding the mind, but lead elle peut aussi permettre aux êtres humains
to an orientation by human beings in the d’orienter le monde, comme l’a démontré
world, demonstrated through the learning le processus d’apprentissage discuté plus
10 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

haut dans l’article, et ainsi, se révéler pro- I
metteur pour l’avenir de l’humanité.

This paper is about the human mind,
Resumen
Este artículo relaciona los conceptos identified by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as “the
Bahá’ís de la mente con pensamientos fi- power of the human spirit” (Some
losóficos. Presenta argumentos de ambas Answered Questions 55:6).1 I compare
fuentes para un entendimiento no reduc- Bahá’í concepts with some insights
cionista de la mente humana y argumenta from contemporary philosophy of mind
que, a pesar que la ciencia puede ayudarnos that are similar to Bahá’í views. As with
avanzar nuestra comprensión de la mente, any philosophical question, there is a
no es suficiente en esta búsqueda, ya que broad range of positions on the mind
no puede captar completamente como la in philosophy, but my focus on points
mente humana experimenta la realidad. El of similarity is deliberate. On the one
artículo revisa la manera conceptual de la
hand, some of the more naturalistic or
mente para conocer, explora las implica-
computational philosophical approach-
ciones del lenguaje para la filosofía de la
es to the mind, which resonate less
mente, y considera como tanto la búsque-
da de la ciencia como el fenómeno de la with a Bahá’í understanding, are well
religión irradian luz sobre las capacidades represented by approaches to human
y la naturaleza de la mente. Después de consciousness that take animal con-
sugerir que el proceso de aprendizaje en sciousness or artificial intelligence as
el cual la comunidad mundial Bahá’í se ha their models; these are explored in due
embarcado podría servir como un modelo course. On the other hand, and more
para involucrarse en un emprendimiento fundamentally, the focus on similarity
colectivo para el mejoramiento del mun- supports the goal of the paper, which
do, vuelve a la filosofía para aceptar que, is to assist readers to see how insights
mientras muchos filósofos contemporá- from philosophy and from the Bahá’í
neos en forma persuasiva argumentan que
writings can complement each other,
la mente humana no se puede reducir a la
and contribute to discourse in this area.
causalidad física, la resistencia filosófi-
The paper is structured around three
ca a una dimensión espiritual de la mente
humana es excesivamente limitada. Las interweaving strands of argument. In
mentes de los seres humanos demuestran the first, to gain some idea of the nature
capacidades que yacen más allá de la natu- of the mind, I explore helpful insights
raleza, y una concepción de la mente como
“el poder del espíritu humano” o “el alma 1 The ideas in this paper grew out
racional” puede no solo ser una mane- of a presentation to a colloquium on hu-
ra fructífera para entender la mente, sino man nature organized by the Institute for
conduce a una orientación para los seres Studies in Global Prosperity (ISGP) in
humanos en el mundo, demostrado por el December 2020. I am grateful to the ISGP
proceso de aprendizaje discutido anterior- and to Lydia LeMay, Ilya Shodjaee, Todd
mente en el artículo, lo cual es prometedor Smith, and Levin Zendeh for their helpful
para el futuro de la humanidad. comments on the presentation which have
been extended in this paper.
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 11

from philosophy that help to illuminate causality. More fundamentally, the
the insufficiency of reductive expla- reductionist accounts fail to provide
nations of the mind that rely solely an adequate qualitative description of
on physical or natural explanations, consciousness itself; and while science
thereby implying (or stating explicitly) may aspire to progressively “fill in the
that the mind is a purely physical and gaps” to create a complete picture of
natural phenomenon. I canvass philos- consciousness rooted in physical cau-
ophy that provides logical support for sality, philosophers have persuasively
the Bahá’í view of the mind as a unique argued that an accurate description
power that lies beyond physical expla- of consciousness requires a kind of
nations that aim to level the human knowledge that science simply cannot
mind to animal rationality, describe it access.
as arising entirely out of the operations The second strand of argument
of the physical brain, or propose that ar- elaborates on what, then, an adequate
tificial intelligence (AI) will reproduce philosophical approach to the mind
the power of the human mind. These entails, one that takes account of
reductionist accounts stand at odds those features of mind that cannot be
with our intuitive understanding of the reduced to animal or computational
mind, of course. After all, we don’t say models. Such an approach must pro-
that neurons or physical dynamics in vide a more complete account of the
the brain read and write music, just as human mind and consciousness than
we don’t say that feathers and wings either neuroscience, animal rationality,
fly. Birds fly, using these parts of their or AI. I therefore explore philosophical
anatomy, and people compose music in accounts of the mind that, like a Bahá’í
their own minds by way of their con- view, emphasize a range of capacities
scious appreciations.2 But philosophy of the mind: knowledge and rationality
can help us move beyond an intuitive certainly, but also feelings (attitudes
sense that there must be something and emotions) and purposefulness (the
more to the human mind than these intentionality of the mind). I argue that
reductionist models suggest, and pro- a philosophy that appreciates these
vide reasoned arguments for why, for features of the mind and grapples with
example, despite the success of neuro- their implications for human agency,
scientific efforts in correlating brain ac- normativity, and free will ultimately
tivity with some features of conscious- provides a more sufficient account of
ness, they fall short of demonstrating the mind than can a materialist neuro-
science that seeks to flatten these ca-
2 This observation comes from pacities into purely physical terms, and
Colin McGinn’s rebuttal of Patricia thereby loses sight of the fullness of
Churchland’s reduction of mind to the what they are.
physical across several issues of the New The third strand focuses on where
York Review of Books. See, for example, and how a Bahá’í contribution to our
McGinn’s “Storm Over the Brain.”
12 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

understanding of the mind may help ophy I engage with typically under-
expand current philosophical posi- stands the mind’s essential features to
tions. Even in philosophy that reso- be “human agency” and “normativity,”
nates in important ways with a Bahá’í concepts relating to the freedom and
understanding of the mind, there are, spontaneity of the mind. Through nor-
of course, differences. Most contem- mativity, we take responsibility for our
porary philosophers, for instance, even judgments and perceptions: we (po-
when they reject the reduction of mind tentially) choose how to evaluate the
to narrowly physical computational world around us, rather than passively
processes, still insist on placing the receiving value judgments pre-formed
mind within the natural world rather in the world, the way we receive sense
than accepting the possibility that the impressions. Through human agency,
mind is embedded in a reality that goes we choose our actions.5 Though “hu-
beyond the natural. This, however, re- man agency” is not too distant from the
quires highly abstract arguments, such meaning of “the power of the human
as McDowell’s position that our capac- spirit,” which on its face could be un-
ities of mind are “second nature,” or derstood as describing a supra-physical
references to “normativity” that remain capacity emerging from an essentially
apart from a natural scientific explana- physical being, contemporary philos-
tion. These positions have shortcom- ophy resists the idea of the “rational
ings, in my view, that an acceptance soul” which, for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, is
of a wider, “extended reality”3 above
and beyond the physical or the natural Some Answered Questions 55:5). Further
would avoid. Such a reality can better research on the use of these terms in the
account for the qualitative “feel” of original language texts may provide in-
consciousness and its immateriality. sight into the logic behind specific uses of
The idea of an extended world is, of each. It may be that in some cases ‘Abdu’l-
course, built into a Bahá’í approach to Bahá’s choice of one or the other term is
based on His audience’s framework for
the question of mind, which centers on
thinking about the nature of this human
the “power of the human spirit” or “the
essence; perhaps in other cases the choice
rational soul.”4 Conversely, the philos- is meant to highlight a particular facet of
this essence which, by its nature, cannot be
3 I take this term from Thomas encompassed by language. There may of
Nagel. course be other considerations.
4 “Spirit” and “soul” (sometimes 5 “Both Heidegger and Korsgaard,
“rational soul”) refer to the same general following Kant, conceive of human agency
concept in authoritative Bahá’í writings. in terms of … normativity” (Rousse 417);
“The human spirit, which distinguish- “If there is room for a substantial concep-
es man from the animal, is the rational tion of the will in contemporary theorizing
soul, and these two terms—the human about human agency, it is most likely to be
spirit and the rational soul – designate found in the vicinity of the phenomenon of
one and the same thing” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, normativity” (Wallace 195).
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 13

equivalent to “the power of the human investigating reality and generating
spirit,” and which is an essence that knowledge, but that, like any form of
is ontologically supra-physical. Still, human knowledge, it is an outgrowth
it may be that “normativity” and “hu- of human agency, or in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s
man agency” are merely useful labels terms, the power of the rational soul. It
that cover insurmountable problems is a capacity that operates at a level of
in philosophy’s efforts to gain a gen- consciousness that cannot be reduced
uine understanding of the mind and of to causal interactions at the physical
human action. I suggest an alternative level in the brain. Having thus exam-
approach that relies on the power of the ined how science can both shed light
human spirit in the final sections of this on the mind, and have its own nature
paper. illumined by careful consideration
The paper is structured around these of the nature of the mind’s capacity
three strands as follows. In Part One, I to conduct scientific investigation, in
explore how different the human mind Part Five I explore the same questions
is from animal rationality, focusing on with respect to religion. Religion, like
the uniquely conceptual nature of the science, cannot simply be understood
human mind. In Part Two, I explore as a creation of the human brain; it is
implications of the conceptual nature instead a powerful way of knowing
of the mind relating to learning and for human beings, precisely because
objectivity, and suggest that in its re- of the human mind’s unique capacities
liance on self-conscious awareness as to know. I comment on the language
the foundation of thought, as well as in of Revelation, and the power of that
its capacities for feeling and purpose- language to reach not only the cogni-
fulness, and its essential holism, the tive capacity of the mind, but also the
human mind is categorically distin- feelings and purposefulness of human
guishable from AI. I add comments in reality. The phenomenon of religion,
Part Three about language as a central therefore, helps give us a fuller ap-
instrument of the mind. These sections preciation of the nature of the human
together demonstrate that explanations mind: engagement with Revelation
confined to natural science are unable can engender feelings, thoughts and
to account for the mind’s faculties of purposefulness that strengthen the
knowing, feeling, and purposefulness, mind’s relationship to an extended re-
features of mind that not only shape ality beyond space and time, to a world
consciousness on an individual level, that is expansive beyond the merely
but have allowed humans collectively sensible environment of the animal.
to generate progressive civilization, Finally, in Part Six, I consider whether
a phenomenon with no parallel in the understanding the mind as an essen-
natural world. In Part Four, I argue tially spiritual phenomenon—as “the
that scientific practice is an exemplary power of the human spirit” or “rational
expression of the mind’s capacity for soul”—can help lend coherence to a
14 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

philosophy of mind that rejects a nar- with Abdu’l-Bahá’s statements on this
row physicalist understanding of mind, matter. For McDowell, a primary dif-
and if so, how such a paradigm can be ference between the animal and human
presented in philosophical terms. is that the human mind has a concep-
This paper is inspired by a talk giv- tual way of knowing and engaging the
en by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on 20 September world, while the animal responds to an
1912, in which He says that philoso- immediate environment. “World” and
phy should make efforts to seek under- “environment” are distinguished by
standing of both physical and spiritual the fact that where an environment is
aspects of reality. In that talk, He spe- defined by its materiality and sensibil-
cifically credits the enduring impor- ity, a world is a conceptual construct
tance of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle that includes both features immedi-
to the way they combined physical ately sensed, but also (and usually far
and spiritual dimensions in their phi- more) features that reside as concepts
losophy (Promulgation ch. 105). The in the human mind. Thus, an animal’s
philosophers I cite in this paper have environment, in this use of the term,
devoted years of study to those great consists of everything to which it has
figures of the western philosophical direct sensory access in a given mo-
tradition, and in their own ways, they ment. This sensing may trigger memo-
show the fruitfulness of a philosophy ries that prompt action; but the human
that, if not explicitly embracing the mind situates itself in a wider world,
spiritual, is not hidebound by an insis- within which it can invoke memories,
tence on materialist reductionism. concepts, imaginations, etc., including
ones not triggered by immediate sen-
sory input. In a similar way, ‘Abdu’l-
P O : Bahá explains that “the animal per-
A R ceives sensible things but cannot
H M : perceive conceptual realities” (Some
S E Answered Questions 48:6). “Of this
C W power of discovery which belongeth
to the human mind, this power which
Since antiquity, philosophers have can grasp abstract and universal ideas,
compared human beings with animals, the animal remaineth totally ignorant”
both in order to distinguish these two (Selections 163:2).6 McDowell, like
realities and to connect them. The work
of John McDowell, one of the foremost 6 I take the meaning of “conceptu-
philosophers of mind working today, al” for both McDowell and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to
provides useful insight into the lim- be in line with Markus Gabriel’s definition
itations of an animal model for under- of a concept: “a concept is something by
standing human consciousness. means of which we can distinguish some-
McDowell’s arguments resonate thing or some things from other things. The
concept of a dog distinguishes dogs from
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 15

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, understands the human also imply other concepts in chains of
mind as reliant on an enormous num- implication or assumptions: some con-
ber of concepts that shape a world cepts are assumed implicitly in order to
the mind then has in view. Concepts understand other concepts. Humans do
are the means by which the mind per- not draw on concepts in isolation; our
ceives and engages with that world. capacity to know depends on the inter-
Some concepts represent the material relationships between many concepts.
features of the world: by concepts we As philosopher Markus Gabriel puts it:
know red from green, for example, and
also know that red is in the concept Whatever is real is integrated in a
class of color, which is distinct from network of concepts. Every con-
the concept class of texture. These cept refers to another. If you know
materially grounded concepts exist a concept, you thereby know a
alongside others that supply us with the bunch of others too. This thesis
meanings we need in order to navigate is known as semantic holism and
the human world of institutions, norms, says that you’re able to deploy
values, principles, and language. Thus, a concept only if you’re able to
such crucial parts of our daily experi- deploy a whole battery of further
ence as feelings and purposes are also concepts that stand in various log-
conceptual, yet immaterial. Through ical relations to it. (Meaning 194)
concepts, we distinguish indignation
from anger, generosity from kindness. This emphasis on the role of con-
We learn from infancy thousands and cepts in human thought is not to deny
thousands of concepts that shape the the importance of sense perception and
world we have in view. Many concept direct experience. We take in our expe-
classes are nested within other con- rience by way of our senses, but in a
cept classes; “dog” is a concept nested manner that must always be mediated
within the broader concept “animal,” by the conceptual for us to have any
yet itself encompasses the concepts experience at all. To paraphrase Kant,
of “German shepherd,” “poodle,” and whom McDowell draws on to develop
other breeds of dog. This is only one his own idea of the conceptual, sensa-
of many ways in which concepts are tions without concepts are blind, and
profoundly interdependent. Concepts concepts without human experience
and sensations are empty (Mind and
cats, but also from lions and earlobes” World). Concepts allow us to under-
(Gabriel, Meaning 192). Importantly, a stand what we perceive, and “sensory
concept in this sense does not require di- consciousness” is always shaped by our
rect sensory comparison in order to distin- understanding: “objects come into view
guish two things. Thus, while an animal for us [by sensations] in actualizations
can distinguish different things by sight or of capacities that are fully conceptual”
smell, the human can distinguish them in (McDowell, World in View 34–35).
the abstract using concepts.
16 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

In other words, to be receptive to the by our subjective beliefs on the physical
world we rely on a conceptual idea of world” (Tabas, qtd. in “We Hear”). We
a world that is already “there” in the interpret the sensations we experience
mind, so that as we perceive and recog- in the world by way of the concepts we
nize features of the world (whether ma- have learned, and through these con-
terial objects or abstract realities), they cepts we then make judgments about
are then available for placement within the world and take actions—for rea-
the world we have in view—or close sons that are themselves conceptual—
enough to allow relative adjustments as we advance matters at hand, or bring
to a world that shapeshifts as we gain about a better world we have in view.
further knowledge of it. Successive ex- There is thus an inseparable coopera-
periences of life bring to us a manifold tion of sensibility and conceptuality
of sensations that we are able to grasp that cannot be disentangled.
by the elimination and reduction of the This interplay between sense and
available information—the millions of concept does not seem to operate in
sensory bits available to our senses— the same way in animal cognition. In
bringing to our experience an under- McDowell’s assessment, which reso-
standable world that we then have in nates with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s explanations
mind.7 “Our subjective beliefs on the on the topic, animals may appear to rea-
physical world have a decisive role on son in a manner that seems comparable
how we perceive reality . . . All that we to human reasoning, but their reasoning
perceive might be deeply contaminated is always a response to an environment
and to particulars, not to a world. The
7 Psychologist Timothy Wilson animal “reasons” by way of differential
estimates that the brain is inundated with response repertoires that rely on acute
“11 million discrete bits of information senses, and their excellent memory of
per second, of which no more than 40 can environments and the particulars with-
be consciously processed” (qtd. in Heath, in such environments. In short, the
Enlightenment 2.0 73). An animal, of
animal distinguishes particulars not
course, may receive as much sensory data
conceptually, but by acute sensibility
as a human being—or more, for animals
with keener senses than ours—but to the
and memory—which, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
extent that they react to and engage with points out, are often better than human
an environment without needing to under- sensibility and memory, which have
stand it, the simplifying function of con- different functions than strict fidelity
cepts is not necessary for them. For recent to the physical and the natural (Some
discussions by neuroscientists on how our Answered Questions 48:2).
consciousness maps patterns of synaptic The animal’s ability to distinguish
firings in the brain onto conceptual pat- between particular objects, and even
terns, see Antonio Damasio’s Feeling and human gestures, may appear similar
Knowing: Making Minds Conscious and to our human discrimination, but has
Anil Seth’s Being You: A New Science of to do with particulars in the physical
Consciousness.
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 17

environment rather than conceptual Hegel 104). This is the nature of judg-
meanings. However aware and con- ment, the action by which thinking is
scious animals may be, theirs is not a conscious; for “to judge is to be aware
world that is conceptual and thus be- not only of what one is judging, but
yond the physicality of nature. The hu- that one is judging, asserting, claim-
man mind understands and navigates ing something,” to others or to oneself
both the world of physical objects and (105). The human being can thus think
human realities that are perceived and about their own thoughts (and actions),
brought to mind by our conceptual holding them in mind and cognitively
way of thinking, feeling, and engaging examining them in the same way as
with purposefulness (or intentionality). one can examine an external object.
The animals’ engagement, at whatever Human beings also rely on more ca-
level of consciousness it may be, is by pacities of mind than sense perception
way of biological needs, while human and a memory of sensory information.
beings engage with a world, not a mere ‘Abdu’l-Bahá affirms that the human
environment, with purposes and proj- capacities of imagination, thought,
ects that reach beyond the biological. comprehension, and memory—along
An example can help illustrate the with “a common faculty . . . which me-
distinction. A horse, seeing an apple, diates” between these capacities and
moves to eat it: sensory information the outer senses of perception—are
prompts a reaction. A human seeing the spiritual powers, which seems to im-
same apple may have a similar reac- ply that they are different in kind from
tionary response, but can also engage animal rationality (Some Answered
in conceptual thinking. Thus, the sight Questions ch. 56). An element of this
of the apple reminds her of a trip to an difference appears to be their holism.
orchard as a child, or of the threat of Thus, Bahá’u’lláh likewise confirms
drought, or, by way of the story of Sir that
Isaac Newton, of the law of gravity. It
leads to a decision to act in the world, [s]pirit, mind, soul, and the pow-
by taking her children to an orchard, or ers of sight and hearing are but
limiting water waste in her household, one single reality which hath
or revisiting her university physics manifold expressions owing to
textbook. the diversity of its instruments. As
The centrality of concepts to human thou dost observe, man’s power to
thought also permits a self-awareness comprehend, move, speak, hear,
about our thinking that does not seem and see all derive from this sign of
to be shared by the animal. As Hegel his Lord within him. (Summons,
argued, human thought is about “cog- “Suriy-i-Ra’is” ¶35)
nizing the distinction of things” while
“knowing and holding in mind what is McDowell seems to be driving at a
being distinguished” (qtd. in Pippin, similar concept when he stresses the
18 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

inseparable cooperation of percep- In making a judgment, we rely on our
tion and conceptual thought, as noted perceptions and on concepts: our be-
earlier. He further points out that the liefs, our standards for truth (or our
conceptual nature of our thinking is standards of the right, the good, or the
only made possible by a “rationally beautiful), any necessary background
organized network of capacities for ac- assumptions, and logic and syntax.
tive adjustment of one’s thinking to the This reliance is seamless; while a
deliverances of experience” (Mind and person can analytically distinguish
World 29). between the sight of a work of art, the
Andrea Kern follows McDowell’s aesthetic standard against which she
thinking about the conceptual nature appraises it, and the process by which
of our rational capacity. In her import- the perception is measured against the
ant book, Sources of Knowledge: On standard, in actual experience there is
the Concept of a Rational Capacity no such distinguishing, supporting the
for Knowledge, she provides one way contention that it is a “single reality” at
of understanding the above statement work. Indeed, in making judgments we
of Bahá’u’lláh on the “single reality” often rely on concepts, including the
of “spirit, mind, soul, and the pow- standard of truth by which we judge,
ers of sight and hearing.” She, too, without consciously bringing them to
understands the rational capacity for mind (Kern 182). This is a unique ca-
knowledge as a single reality of mind pacity for knowledge that combines at
and perception. While not referring once perception, judgment, and action,
to spirit or soul, she thus agrees with along with an enormous amount of hu-
Bahá’u’lláh’s idea that our rational man learning.
capacity seamlessly brings together This capacity for judgment has con-
the conceptual mind and perceptions. tributed to a further unique feature, or
This seamless integration of capacities product, of the human mind. Human
enables us to further distinguish the hu- beings have created a world through
man capacity for judgment. Kern elab- the visual arts, architecture, music,
orates on what it means to make a judg- and crafts, as well as engineering and
ment. Judgment—deeming something infrastructure that strives to make the
true or untrue, correct or incorrect, world more beautiful. Our capacity
according to some standard of truth or for judgment enables this creation, by
correctness—is always self-conscious, allowing us to judge proportion, scale,
in that our knowing something is also and symmetry, to identify appropriate
being conscious of knowing something metaphorical expressions, and to de-
(or sincerely believing that we do).8 cide on and assess art against aesthetic
ideals. Thus, it is important to com-
ment on the arts as a feature of culture
8 Or as Pippin puts it, “[j]udgment that likewise goes beyond the animal’s
is the consciousness of judgment . . . There often more practical and sensible
is not two acts, but one” (Hegel 105).
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 19

reshaping of its own environment in demonstrated a capacity to re-imagine
ways that fall relatively short of the situations on some level; similar ca-
human being’s efforts. pacities can be seen elsewhere in the
A final point on which McDowell animal kingdom, as in certain birds.
differentiates the animal and human While there is thus some evidence for
mind is that we characterize all human the great apes’ representation of the
beings as moral or immoral, but hard- object world in simple abstract and
ly ever conceive of animals in these causal, even intentional inferences in
terms. This position finds support in the mind, they are unable to adopt al-
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s reminder that while ternative perspectives. Tomasello sum-
the scorpion may seem evil in relation marizes how, unlike animals, human
to the human being, it is, in its own beings have:
self, good (Some Answered Questions
74:5). This is not, on its face, an attri- (1) the ability to cognitively rep-
bution of good (or bad) moral behavior resent experiences to oneself ‘off-
to the scorpion, but an assertion of its line’; (2) the ability to simulate
ontological goodness as a creation of or make inferences transforming
God. This is the sense of good and evil those representations causally,
within which nature and animals can intentionally, and/or logically;
be assessed, and all in this sense are (3) the ability to self-monitor and
good in themselves, even if from our evaluate how these simulated ex-
perspective they can cause bad out- periences might lead to specific
comes for us. Only in the human realm behavioral outcomes . . . [or to un-
is it meaningful to attribute good and dertake] (4) thoughtful behavioral
evil to intentions and actions. decisions. (4)
In A Natural History of Human
Thinking, linguist and developmental These capacities at an individual
psychologist Michael Tomasello sum- level have an exponential impact when
marizes much of the research regard- deployed at the level of the group, and
ing differences between the human give rise to human ways of being to-
mind and animal rationality. This re- gether that the more basic cognitive
search largely bears out the conceptual capacities of the great apes do not per-
differences between animal and hu- mit. In addition to the “shared world”
man minds outlined in the philosophy constructed by human language, as
above. Tomasello focuses in particular discussed below, the human ability to
on the thinking of the great apes, wide- decenter our individual perspective, to
ly considered to represent the apex of take neutral-agency perspectives, ap-
non-human mental ability. These an- preciate the perspective of others, and
imals, of course, do have prodigious coordinate action accordingly, does not
capacities. In recent experiments, often find a strong correlate in the great apes.
involving the use of tools, they have Any discussion of how conceptual
20 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

thinking distinguishes humans from will support the argument, made later
animals, particularly in its implications in the paper, that a philosophy of mind
for coordination, necessarily requires that acknowledges the more-than-an-
consideration of language. However, imal capacities of the human mind,
before considering language in full, and rejects a reductionist physicalist
which will have implications for how neuroscientific explanation of these
the pursuit of scientific and religious capacities, need not reject out of hand
knowledge shed light on the nature of the concept of the mind as an essential-
mind, it will be helpful to explore some ly “supernatural” phenomenon. This
further implications of the conceptual argument will be further developed by
mind. considering the knowledge systems of
science and religion in light of human
language.
P T : We can begin with Tomasello’s in-
H C M L sight that the capacity of human groups
to progressively build on advances in
L I culture (broadly speaking, including
S -C A technology) is due to a fundamental
S C feature of human conceptual thinking.
Where animals can share a sensory
Having introduced key features of the environment, and use this sharing as
human mind through contrast with ani- the basis of cooperation, humans can
mals, I want to specifically explore how achieve a different degree of coopera-
the mind learns new ways of viewing tion thanks to our capacity to share a
the world. Such learning involves the world of concepts:
multiple realities of cognition, feeling
and purpose that the mind engages. human beings construct an inter-
Though the platform for such learn- subjective world with others—
ing is always our own self-conscious shared but with differing perspec-
awareness, it is important to emphasize tives . . . [this is] fundamental to
our inherently social nature as minded human cooperative communica-
creatures. Both the self-referentiality tion. (46)
and social embeddedness of learn-
ing highlight that the human mind, Tomasello’s insight into the cooper-
as discussed in the previous section, ative structure of human teaching and
operates in a world, not merely in an learning by no means applies only to
environment. This world is in fact con- formal learning in the classroom. It is
structed of many worlds, including our inherent in human learning from the
inner world and shared social worlds. very beginning, as demonstrated by
All are built out of an architecture of human infants who master “joint at-
concepts. The features explored here tention” with mothers before speech
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 21

develops, allowing for the coordination infant mind, other minds, and the reali-
of complex actions, and, as we mature, ty of an object world. Thus, even as the
a “collective intentionality” with oth- child learns about the object world by
ers. Joint attention, crucially, is more relying on others’ first-person reactions
than two minds paying attention to the towards, and expressiveness regarding,
same thing; it is paying attention with that world, they simultaneously learn
awareness that this attention is shared, the importance of emotions, meanings,
something that human infants are capa- and intentionality.
ble of in some form from a young age. No creature is as helpless, for as
While great apes demonstrate certain long, as the human infant. Those in-
characteristics of joint attention, these clined to see a design in the features of
do not continue to develop into the rich our existence might point out that it is
forms of collective intentionality that arguably our complete dependency on
unfold as the human child matures. other people and their reactions to us
“The idea that the human mind in its that enables us—indeed, requires is—
infant stages, as it were, looks at the to learn so early the foundation of hu-
physical world and tries to make sense man sociability: that others have minds
of it, is completely mythical . . . [O] and consciousness as we do. Obviously
ur first encounter with reality is an in the infant this is not yet self-con-
encounter with people” (Gabriel, Not sciousness, but the first glimmerings of
a Brain 37). Other people and their a world we wake up to over the years
minds have far greater impact on a ba- of our infancy as we learn a complex of
by’s growing awareness and conscious- feelings, purposes and thoughts that is
ness than the baby’s encounters with a extraordinarily vast. The human capac-
world of objects. Babies meet mother, ity to entertain multiple perspectives,
father, and significant others, and expe- for instance, which seems to elude the
rience their own consciousness by way great apes, begins to develop as early
of immediate relationships, mediated as between the ages of two and three.
by powerful gestures and enactments. The dependence of the human mind
Babies begin learning through differ- on social learning is exemplified by
ent social practices that are mindful, how we learn language. From his first
including with respect to the physi- word at twelve to eighteen months old,
cal world. The physical world takes the child acquires well over 10,000
shape within a baby’s consciousness words by the age of six, while simul-
mediated by concepts, standards and taneously learning rules of syntax and
norms gleaned from other minds. The semantic usage that build to an enor-
baby, in effect, learns of the world (in mous complexity (Pinker)—and all
the expansive, more-than-environment this, as philosopher of mind and lan-
sense) in its mental features as much guage Donald Davidson emphasizes, is
as in its physical features, and does so done on very thin evidence and limited
by way of a triangulation between the experience. And it is not that one word
22 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

is uttered, then another, in an additive (Language 141) that allow human
process of learning; this is a process of beings to develop ideas of objectivity
gestures, actions, enactments between by way of a detachment from first-per-
mother and father and baby, that builds son consciousness to agent-neutral
a world of sense, a holistic picture, that perspectives. At a very early age, this
is grasped by the baby (Taylor, The enables the coordination of action by
Language Animal). “Mama” may be a “we-intentionality” among groups of
the “first word” uttered, but it is already human beings.10
embedded in a baby’s understanding of In line with the highly cooperative
a whole world of previous interactive nature of the human mind, Charles
gesture and response that has been Sanders Peirce, the seminal pragmatist
growing in the mind of the baby. This philosopher, argues, as does Hegel,
allows the baby to begin utterances that it is a mistake to think of “belief as
in speech intimately tied to a world individual belief. Of course the beliefs
that is blossoming in the mind of the of individuals are flawed; no individu-
infant, a world where the sun comes al mind is capable of an accurate and
up gradually, as it were, as the infant objective knowledge of reality” (qtd. in
develops and learns. As Wittgenstein Menand 228). It is in the shared views
writes, “Light dawns gradually over of many minds that we come to know
the whole” (qtd. in McDowell, World the world. This agrees with Davidson’s
168). Wittgenstein brings into the pic- view that all members of the human
ture the imaginative powers of the mul- race share far, far more conceptually
tiple language-games in which human than the small proportion of views on
beings become quickly adept across which we disagree.
the many social practices of human It is always, of course, our own con-
reality.9 And, as philosophy now em- sciousness or mind, in the first-person,
phasizes, it is the sentence, not words that serves as the only platform we
themselves, that comprise meanings, have by which we engage the world.11
facts and truths (the good, the right, This first-person awareness comes
and the beautiful). first in any order of an explanation of
Philosopher Charles Taylor, too, reality. It is important to note that our
refers to the capacity of human infants
to quickly acquire a capacity for “joint 10 See “How Language Grows” in
attention” with mothers and signifi- Taylor’s The Language Animal.
cant others, and notes the emergence 11 This discussion of the centrality
of “the cultural conventions, norms of self-consciousness is largely inspired by
and institutions, including language” the complementary views of Merlin Donald
in A Mind so Rare, and Sebastian Rödl in
Self-Consciousness and Objectivity. Merlin
9 See Hans J. Schneider’s dis- writes from the perspective of psychology
cussion of imagination and calculation in and cognitive neuroscience; Rödl from the
Wittgenstein’s Later Theory of Meaning. perspective of Hegelian philosophy.
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 23

self-conscious judgments are not sim- capture the experience of phenomena,
ply subjective, although they can be. which can only be known from the per-
Our judgments about reality can ap- spective of first-person consciousness.
proach objective reality to the extent A man who is entirely blind from birth
that we have developed them in sound, will not understand and appreciate col-
cooperative social practices with other or by finding out about brain processes
minds—discovering how others judge in the visual cortex, or by listening to
objective reality, learning how to think testimony from others. He has to expe-
from others’ perspectives as well as our rience color first-hand, a phenomenon
own, bringing these multiple perspec- in the mind that is simply not made
tives together according to standards or existent by any “objective” descrip-
principles of truth that we have learned tion of the electro-magnetic spectrum.
with respect to the object world, or by Someone who is deaf cannot appreciate
standards of the good, the right, or the the impact in a hearing person’s mind,
beautiful, that we have learned by way whether by way of the mind’s capacity
of our ability to share others’ perspec- for feeling, imagination, or cognition,
tives in multiple social practices since of hearing Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma,”
infancy. We may have judgments we no matter how refined an understand-
aren’t sure of, or that are wrong, and ing the deaf person has of sound waves
those may be called subjective, but and the relationship of the ear to the
when we judge by standards or norms auditory regions of the brain. This is
of truth using our rational capacity for the nature of mind and consciousness,
knowledge, we judge objectively in a feeling and mindedness that refutes
the best way we know how. Objective any and all physical explanations of
knowledge, we then conclude, is a neu- the brain as a way to account for our
tral, third-person judgment that comes conscious minds. Yet there are avail-
after our first-person judgments. It able to the blind or the deaf, conceptual
is derivative of our first-person con- translations—not qualitatively compa-
sciousness and rational faculty as we rable in the sense of conscious appre-
come to understand each other in our ciations—that do allow, nonetheless,
many first-person to first-person ex- sufficient shared conceptions to permit
changes through life. coordinated actions.
When we think of objective knowl- Thus, if our self-consciousness is
edge, we tend to privilege more formal, the platform or space by which we
physical descriptions of phenomena. make judgments and take actions,
Such descriptions are, of course, power- this has implications for the extent to
ful: being able to capture the operation which those judgments and actions can
of air currents in mathematical terms be studied, quantified, and explained
allows the human mind to design and from the outside. Our understand-
refine flying machines. And yet such ings are always internal understand-
descriptions are utterly inadequate to ings, and while they can be explained
24 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

derivatively by an external explanation, a concept, Hegel asked: How is it that
such an explanation is already less than concepts grasp our minds so firmly
the awareness of reality that we know that they then limit our thought and
by knowing our own minds. Indeed, an reasoning.
individual can arguably gain a better Hegel’s question provides a way of
understanding of another’s mind by the understanding an important passage of
exercise of the simple, yet profound, Bahá’u’lláh:
human capacity to take multiple per-
spectives, than the researcher could ob- To whatever heights the mind of
tain by even the most detailed descrip- the most exalted of men may soar,
tion of the workings of that person’s however great the depths which
brain. Just as we know ourselves from the detached and understanding
within, we can to some extent come to heart can penetrate, such mind
know another person’s conscious sense and heart can never transcend
of themselves, not through scientific that which is the creature of their
measurement, but through intentional own conceptions and the product
perspective-taking, aided by our in- of their own thoughts. (Gleanings
terpretation of the other’s expressive 148:1)
language and actions. We can, however
roughly, know what the other feels and As we saw from McDowell, we
thinks because we can to some extent take in the world by placing what we
take their position, and feel and think it experience within the world of con-
ourselves. And this, again, is a capacity cepts we have construed over years of
only made possible by our own foun- learning. Yet such learning may be se-
dational self-consciousness. riously misinformed. Becoming aware
Both of the facets of thinking and of inconsistencies in the vast array of
learning just discussed—the social and concepts that make up our world can
the self-conscious—have implications prompt adjustments, as can learning
for how we make judgments about new concepts or new relationships
what is true or correct, how our think- among existing concepts. However,
ing can go wrong, and how we can be- while individuals can in this way
come aware of this and respond. correct some measure of error their
A genuine capacity for knowledge thinking, our concepts and view of the
requires the ability to recognize that world can also be changed gradually
we can at times be wrong. Humans, by sound social practices that involve
of course, have this ability; yet, as shared perspectives and cooperation.
Hegel pointed out, we often overlook At the same time, Bahá’u’lláh points
the grip on our minds of concepts that out limitations to which man’s finite
are wrong and prevent sound thinking mind is strictly subjected. Where some
and reasoning. While Descartes had concepts can be changed over time by
questioned the ways the mind grasps appropriate learning, there is another
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 25

kind of limitation which we can nev- unequivocally call upon us to always
er overcome and which pertains to the advance in our learning and our inves-
actual workings of our own minds and tigation of reality, which sometimes
the way in which the “rational faculty” does require modifying firmly held, yet
(or soul) mediates the operation of the erroneous, concepts.
mind. Referring to the “rational facul-
ty,” Bahá’u’lláh says, T “S R ”:
F ,C ,
Wert thou to ponder in thine heart, H M
from now until the end that hath
no end, and with all the concen- By what means, then, can the mind
trated intelligence and understand- fulfill this mandate, given that our
ing which the greatest minds have thoughts are vulnerable to error and
attained in the past or will attain in bound by the limitations just described?
the future, this divinely ordained McDowell’s discussion of “reasons” is
and subtle Reality... thou wilt fail helpful on this question:
to comprehend its mystery or to
appraise its virtue. (Gleanings [W]e make sense of rational re-
83:4) lations between experience and
judgment only in the context of
Markus Gabriel may be identifying an equation between the space of
one aspect of this limitation on ever concepts and the space of reasons.
understanding the rational soul when Thought can bear on empirical re-
he points to a limit in thought’s ability ality only because to be a thinker
to apprehend itself: at all is to be at home in the space
of reasons. (Mind and World 125)
Because thinking is something
real, the conditions of its emer- The idea of a “space of reasons,”
gence are not known to us in their as McDowell puts it, refers to the ca-
entirety . . . how exactly a concrete pacities of mind by which we reason
thought process unfolds, is some- through the elements of that multiplic-
thing it takes a further thought to ity of human realities: feelings, beliefs,
grasp. No thought can catch itself attitudes, norms, memories, imagined
in the act. (Meaning 217) counterfactuals or future possibilities,
motivations, purposes, projects, and
This limitation, of course, in no way values. And if guided rightly, and with
absolves us from the responsibility enough experience in sound social
to seek to increase our understanding practices, we take on reasons that ad-
within the limits imposed on it, and to just the concepts we hold. We generate
identify and improve on errors in our reasons for the intentions and purposes
understanding. The Bahá’í writings of actions we take; and when reflection
26 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

is required, we rely on higher values Bahá’u’lláh’s request to us: “ponder in
and meanings that override passing your hearts.”13 The cognitive, the affec-
desires and idle preferences. The rea- tive (or emotional), and the purposeful
sons supporting our intentions usually are all present in mind as a feature of
go well beyond our immediate experi- our human agency, consciousness,
ence. We rely on a conceptual shaping freedom, and spontaneity within the
of our experience in order to perceive constraints of the world we have in
the world, and rely on our imagination view and which underlies and prompts
informed by new concepts to consider our perceptions, judgments, affirma-
possibilities that don’t yet exist, but tions and actions.
may with the right sort of actions. Feelings are, in their own way, just as
And in our consideration of the mul- much evaluations of situations as cog-
tiple realities that make up our view nitive thoughts are. Ronald de Sousa ar-
of the world it is important to recall gues that we respond to the situations of
passages from Bahá’u’lláh’s Writings life with emotions learned during child-
where He refers to our “understanding hood or from literature and the arts.
heart,”12 alerting us to an understand- Such evaluations are judgments about
ing of the mind and heart as one. Our the world that rely on the mind. Robert
conceptual nature includes feelings, Pippin writes that “a rational capacity
emotions, attitudes and other sensibil- to take up the view of the other is based
ities. That we are self-conscious about on a deeper and more original affective
our feelings, often come to understand capacity” (Interanimations 133), while
them, and give them expression in lan- Rainer Forst writes, “Feelings are ex-
guage and gesture, provides evidence pressions of our beliefs and evalua-
that they can have just as much of a tions, not their opposite: someone who
conceptual hold on us as more cogni- did not have any moral feelings would
tive concepts do. For the mind is not not really be a participant in social,
simply cognitive or intellectual. The evaluating practices” (22).
mind thinks and judges with feelings as Here we see that the human mind is
well as beliefs, and with attitudes that no more reducible to an analogue of ar-
are themselves conceptual, for we know tificial intelligence than it is to the ani-
the object world as much as we know mal mind. Unlike artificial intelligence
the world of principles, purposes, norms that operates according to rules, terms
and standards, and the human situations and algorithms on only one logical
that enter into the judgments and actions level, our understanding of the world
by which we engage the world. is by way of concepts that operate on
There is little distance between different levels, including attitudes and
the heart and the head, as attested by feelings, purposes and projects.

12 See, amongst many, Gleanings 13 See, for example, Gleanings 5:6,
95:4 and 100:8. 65:4, and 108:11.
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 27

Gottlob Frege, who developed the capacity. To appreciate the uniqueness
first “concept script” that today serves of thinking . . . even the concept of a
as the basis of the digital revolution, capacity threatens to block one way to
is also credited with realizing that our a full appreciation of the uniqueness of
human propositional judgements and thinking” (16).
utterances are always attached to atti- Bahá’u’lláh’s description of our
tude, normativity, and human agency. “rational faculty” is important to these
Markus Gabriel refers to Frege’s “co- considerations. He describes the role of
louring and shading” of thought, and the rational faculty as fundamental to
the way in which feeling accompanies the agency of mind, whose instrumen-
thought. “When we reflect on think- talities can be understood to a degree
ing itself, we also express attitudes” even though its actual nature cannot
(Meaning 75). be:
While analytical philosophy has
tended to reduce thoughts to mere prop- Consider the rational faculty with
ositions or assertoric sentences, Taylor, which God hath endowed the es-
McDowell, Gabriel and Pippin, among sence of man. Examine thine own
others, emphasize how language is also self, and behold how thy motion
constitutive, as new meanings and con- and stillness, thy will and purpose,
cepts are developed that make sense of thy sight and hearing, thy sense of
ourselves and human life. Language smell and power of speech, and
not only depicts an object world, but whatever else is related to, or tran-
creates and constitutes higher values scendeth, thy physical senses or
and meanings that define human re- spiritual perceptions, all proceed
ality. A complete understanding of from, and owe their existence
thought recognizes human agency, and to, this same faculty. (Gleanings
accounts for the attitude and feeling 83:1)
involved in the commitments and re-
sponsibility we attach to thoughts and In sum, while we inevitably must
judgments. It recognizes that thoughts dissect the mind into distinct capaci-
involve different modalities—remem- ties in our efforts to understand it, and
bering, imagining, hoping, or assert- while there is also value in investigat-
ing—and that we undertake thoughts ing correlations between features of
with different levels of enthusiasm or the mind and particular brain areas or
detachment. processes, this kind of analysis should
Irad Kimhi notes that “capacities not be allowed to obscure a fundamen-
for judgment, for language, for the tal truth about the mind, attested to by
deployment of logical words (such Bahá’u’lláh and recognized by the phi-
as “not” and “and”) and for self-con- losophers cited above: the human mind
sciousness (and hence for the use of the is not truly a composite of many parts,
word “I”) . . . are all one and the same but a whole. While humanity will no
28 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

doubt continue to develop ever more thoughts, values, and purposes that
sophisticated artificial systems that have current salience for the person
incorporate more features that we as- reasoning, and then also uses language
sociate with the mind—some of them to forms intentions for actions. Donald
operating at levels beyond what is seen Davidson writes that “language is not
in humans—it seems unavoidable that an ordinary learned skill; it is or has
these must always falls short of the ho- become a mode of perception . . . es-
lism that fundamentally characterizes a sential to the other senses if they are
true human mind. to yield propositional knowledge.
Language is the organ of propositional
perception” (Truth 135). An animal, or
P T : a human newborn, in other words, can
L S W sense raindrops on its body and react to
them; a more mature human who feels
Having laid some groundwork by the same raindrops can generate the
exploring correlations between phil- knowledge, through language, that “it
osophical understandings of the mind is raining.”
and its workings, and the picture of Charles Taylor writes, too, of how
the human mind that emerges from the language widens our perceptual capac-
Bahá’í writings, I now return to the role ities, and increases our range of think-
of language in the human mind; this ing and feeling. Insofar as an object, an
in turn will set the stage for a discus- emotion, a value or purpose, stands out
sion of how science and religion shed in our minds, it does so in the context
light on, and can be better understood of a whole situation, a world that we
through, an adequate concept of mind. have in view and that we have consti-
Much of our conceptual capacity de- tuted by way of a language we have
pends, of course, on language, which learned. This world is built of concepts
is comprised not only of words, but put together using the subject-predicate
also of the gestures and enactments structure of language. Some features of
that accompany speech.14 The relation- the world are constructed from direct,
ship between the mind’s perception nonfigurative language—“the sky is
and thought, and human action and blue”—and some from figurative lan-
engagement with the world, is inextri- guage. Language then influences the
cable, and it is mediated by language. way we perceive and take in the world
The mind draws on language to reason (Language 93–94). Language gives us
through the desires, feelings, beliefs, new feelings, new desires, new goals,
new relationships, and introduces a di-
14 “Speech acts involve more than mension of strong values in our lives
emitting the appropriate words. They also (33).
involve bodily action, stance, gesture, Language multiplies a thousandfold
tone of voice, and the like” (Taylor, The and more the combinations of concepts
Language Animal 98).
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 29

available to the human mind. It allows us. We are able to translate each other’s
us to theorize, to generate analogies languages, and even when differences
and metaphors that connect concepts, in culture and linguistic usage create
and so influences how we perceive and gaps in understanding, we can articu-
understand a world beyond what is late those differences and gaps.15
possible for the environmentally con- The role of language in enabling,
strained animal. Its subject and predi- or constraining, our capacity to under-
cate structure gives us a powerful way stand each other across linguistic and
of combining properties and objects, cultural barriers is contentious. The
abstractions and particulars, adding to Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, for example,
capacities for logic we have developed holds that our subjective views of the
since infancy. Language enables us to world are predominantly influenced
continually make judgments, relying by the languages we speak. As not-
on logical operators that we are not ed, Davidson argues that translation
usually conscious of using—the logic between languages goes far to miti-
of identity, non-contradiction, exclu- gating the inherent irreducibility of
sions and inferences of the if-x-then-y these subjective views. At the same
sort. time, of course, different languages
The human being operates with do create different ways of taking in
vocabularies of tens of thousands of and seeing the world. Yet the point
words, and intricate rules of syntax that made by Davidson, as well as Taylor,
we deploy without pause or thought. is that there is far more overlap be-
Even when we get words wrong, or tween human beings’ worlds than
mangle syntax, our common sense way there is difference; or, in other words,
of thinking allows us to understand that our shared world is greater than
each others’ utterances. Indeed, the those worlds that are unique to each
capacity of language to enable com- culture, linguistic group, or (ultimate-
munication between minds is remark- ly) individual. Translation relies on
able for its flexibility. As Davidson has this extensive shared world of human
argued, we rely on an enormous set of beings, and conceptual differences be-
interrelated concepts that are shared tween particular languages represent
universally by all human beings, the only a portion of the enormity of con-
majority of which were developed in ceptual reality that all human beings
infancy, childhood and adolescence. share.16 Of course, something is always
This has always, through history, al-
lowed human beings to meet and con- 15 See Davidson’s Subjective,
verse across widely different languages Intersubjective, Objective and also his
and cultures, employing Davidson’s Truth, Language and History.
“principle of charity” by which we 16 See Taylor’s critique of the Sapir-
assume that other humans are rational Whorf hypothesis in chapter 9 of The
beings navigating the same world as Language Animal. Tomasello, as noted
above, makes a similar point in arguing
30 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

lost in translation: the idea of a shared this language generation is not, as it is
world should not lead us to conclude for the AI, a sophisticated recombina-
that there are no functional differences tion of words and phrases according
between languages, or to imagine that to rules generated inductively through
a language can be learned mechanical- the analysis of thousands or millions of
ly without reference to its cultural con- texts. For the human, language use and
text and distinctive characteristics. But generation is bound up with meaning.
the point remains that the phenomenon Figurative language and new and nov-
of language, as a whole, is enabling el expressiveness in turn influence the
of a collective life for the human race birth of new aspirations, projects and
that other species do not have access purposes. They give us ways of percep-
to. Thus, where similar animals in the tion beyond the surface of things. Our
same place at a given time can share discursive activity, our conversations
a sensory environment, humans can, with others, set up new relationships,
through language, share a world across redefining previous understandings.
time, space, culture, etc. And, largely This capacity of language to shape
through language, humans can collec- and direct our inner world is particu-
tively expand and refine the conceptual larly powerful when we use language
landscape of that world, leading to de- to grapple with things beyond the
velopments in culture. concrete. Davidson writes persuasive-
As with the human mind’s way of ly that we have two languages, one
learning, its reliance on language has relative to the physical realm, and one
implications not only for the world that is about the mental realm. Taylor,
we share with others, but for our in- in turn, refers to the former language
ner world. Human use of language as “designative,” while the latter is
differs in important respects from the only sometimes designative, and more
computer’s use of language, not least often “constitutive.” Where designa-
in that a human’s use of language is tive language assigns relationships
intimately bound up with the human between objects or concepts that re-
agent’s own self-understanding, and quire little or no interpretation—“the
cannot be properly considered without ball is round”—constitutive language
reference to this. Humans are language
generators; we are constantly combin- to twenty-five words is passed, “almost
ing words, and the concepts they per- every sentence uttered by an adult native
tain to, in new and original ways.17 And speaker is a novel sentence. It is new . . .
in the sense that no one in the history of
that advances in human civilizations de- the world has ever heard exactly that string
pend upon humans’ shared grasp of a con- of words before . . . This is an observation
ceptual reality, including across linguistic that has been empirically verified over and
divides. over again by examining large corpora,
17 Consider Noam Chomsky’s ob- transcribing actual conversations, and so
servation that once a threshold of twenty on” (Brandom, A Spirit of Trust 520).
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 31

requires interpretation and a less deter- them in terms of sensible things
minate grasp on such matters as feel- . . . For example, [for] grief and
ings and attitudes, values and norms. happiness . . . you say, “My heart
We use these two languages—neither became heavy”, or “My heart was
of which, Davidson argues, can be uplifted”, although one’s heart is
translated into the other—without not literally made heavy or lifted
pause or deep reflection, in conversa- up. (Some Answered Questions
tion and in how we go about our lives. 16:1–4)
‘Abdu’l-Bahá seems to agree with
both Taylor and Davidson when He The existence of this second lan-
explains that “human knowledge is of guage pertaining to the mental realm,
two kinds”: and the inextricable influence of lan-
guage on our inner condition, point
One is the knowledge acquired to a hard limit on the extent to which
through the senses. That which any human mind can be fully described
the eye, the ear, or the senses of from the external, objectivizing stance
smell, taste, or touch can perceive of neuroscience. However precisely
is called “sensible”. . . . These are neuroscience might map out the synap-
called sensible realities. tic correlates to a person’s realization
The other kind of human knowl- that “my heart is heavy,” this descrip-
edge is that of intelligible things; tion will never capture the essence
that is, it consists of intelligible of the feeling thus described. Gabriel
realities which have no outward summarizes the issue well:
form or place and which are not
sensible. For example, the pow- Our self-conception . . . reflects
er of the mind is not sensible, nor our value system and our personal
are any of the human attributes: experience . . . It has developed
These are intelligible realities. in complex ways, in the tension
Love, likewise, is an intelligible between our understanding of na-
and not a sensible reality. For the ture, literature, legal systems, val-
ear does not hear these realities, ues of justice, our arts, religions,
the eye does not see them . . . . socio-historical and personal ex-
But when you undertake to ex- perience. There just is no way to
press these intelligible realities, describe these developments in
you have no recourse but to cast the language of neuroscience that
them in the mold of the sensible, would be superior or even equal
for outwardly there is nothing be- to the vocabulary [that we have]
yond the sensible. Thus, when you already at hand. (Not a Brain 15)
wish to express the reality of the
spirit and its conditions and de- In the closing sections of this pa-
grees, you are obliged to describe per, I look first at how language and
32 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

the mind operate in natural science, a measured. Scientists will often ad-
language Davidson characterizes as vance the ways we perceive the world
of the physical realm, Taylor as the by relying first on metaphor and anal-
designative. I will then look at the lan- ogy with reference to the concrete and
guage of Revelation, which addresses sensible in order to hypothesize about
both the physical realm and the mental possible undiscovered causal mecha-
realm—the designative and the consti- nisms. Once the hypothesis is tested,
tutive—and how both languages relate and phenomena are observed through
to the material and the spiritual aspects elaborate instrumentation, analogy can
of reality. remain useful in understanding what
has been observed; only later are such
analogies articulated into more formal
P F : theory. Consider, for example, how
S non-intuitive findings of physics in the
twentieth century at both the relativis-
We think of science as proceeding by tic and quantum scales almost demand
way of designation, description, and to be understood through metaphor
explanation of physical and natural and analogy before the student can
causality, and there is validity to this: undertake to comprehend them more
at a certain point in the process by formally.
which human minds investigate natural The process by which science ad-
phenomena using the tools of science, vances through metaphors and anal-
discoveries are framed in this kind of ogies has been labelled “abduction”
language. In some scientific domains, by Charles S. Peirce.18 Abduction in-
as in physics, this designative language volves a way of thinking that relies on
can even be crystallized into mathe- highly focused observation, but also
matics. However, if we focus only on on imagination and a general intelli-
these outcomes of scientific activity, gence. This is a capacity of the human
framed in this particular kind of lan- mind beyond inductive and deductive
guage, we end up missing the full rich- reasoning whereby scientists eliminate
ness of the mental processes by which fanciful theories and mere superstition
human minds engage in science. by deepening their experience with,
It is noteworthy, for instance, that and intuitive understanding of, the phe-
the human ability to “cast” intelligible nomena at hand.19 This exploration in
realities into the “mold of the sensi-
ble” highlighted by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is 18 For an informative summary, see
vital to the pursuit of science as well. Igor Douven’s “Peirce on Abduction.”
Whatever is undiscovered in a giv- 19 Peter Godfrey-Smith explains
en process of natural causality is, in abduction as “inference to the best expla-
a certain sense, insensible: it has not nation” in Theory and Reality, and as a
yet been made accessible to us to be way of eliminating other possible explana-
tions. Imre Lakatos writes about scientific
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 33

depth, beyond the surface observation below the surface of the ordinary per-
of the everyday world, is necessary, ceptual world. This is stressed by
as Francis Bacon wrote at the dawn of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His discussion of the
modern science, since: role and power of the soul in scientific
discovery:
the greatest hindrance and aber-
ration of the human understand- Through the power of the ratio-
ing proceeds from the dullness, nal soul, man can discover the
incompetency and deceptions of realities of things, comprehend
the senses; in that things which their properties, and penetrate the
strike the senses outweigh things mysteries of existence. All the sci-
which do not immediately strike ences, branches of learning, arts,
it, though they may be more im- inventions, institutions, under-
portant. Hence it is that specula- takings, and discoveries have re-
tion commonly ceases where sight sulted from the comprehension of
ceases; insomuch that of things the rational soul. (Some Answered
invisible there is little or no obser- Questions 58:3)
vation. (58)
So powerful and consequential is
Insights that come from intense in- this capacity of the soul to discover
vestigation provide clues that lead to realities beneath what is immediately
theories that advance science. Such sensible that, as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stresses,
insights emerge through the mind’s it must be understood as an essentially
capacity to associate disparate things supernatural capacity:
and find connections and resonance,
to make imaginative leaps. Thus, how- The virtues of humanity are many,
ever much knowledge is ultimately but science is the most noble of
captured in science by designation and them all. The distinction which
explanation, the mind has capacities man enjoys above and beyond the
for generating knowledge that do not station of the animal is due to this
operate by simple induction (in the paramount virtue. It is a bestowal
way an artificial intelligence generates of God; it is not material; it is di-
“knowledge” inductively from large vine. All the powers and attributes
data sets, for instance). of man are human and hereditary
Scientific investigation thus in- in origin—outcomes of nature’s
volves looking into phenomena in processes—except the intellect,
order to discover entities and forces which is supernatural . . . The
power of intellectual investigation
research programs that showed promise or and scientific acquisition is a
decline as a way of then formulating the- higher virtue specialized to man
ory that was plausible, in For and against alone. (Promulgation 20:2)
Method.
34 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

The implications of this characteri- approach. Until recently, histories of
zation of the mind and scientific inqui- scientific advance neglected the role
ry for philosophy will be considered of haphazard inventions, innovations,
later. For the present, we can consider and advances that were initially dis-
how the human mind’s capacity for connected from theory.21 As Thomas
scientific investigation sheds light on Kuhn notes, scientists develop ways of
the distinctiveness of the phenomenon seeing particular domains of reality by
of mind itself (whether or not one sees way of a kind of sixth sense or an in-
in this distinctiveness evidence of a tuitive grasp arising from their absorp-
spiritual or “supernatural” essence to tion in scientific practice. There are
the mind). Indeed, it seems plausible few better explanations of this than the
that the way the mind undertakes sci- book on scientist Barbara McClintock,
ence may not be reproducible in, for A Feeling for the Organism. Author
instance, artificial intelligence systems. Evelyn Fox Keller describes the (often
As noted earlier, scientific advances overlooked) contributions McClintock
rely on not only inductive and deduc- made to ecological and genetic science
tive reasoning, but also on abductive thanks to how she came to “see” phe-
reasoning or “general intelligence.” nomena, a kind of vision arising out of
The role of general intelligence in her absorption and dedication to sound
particular demonstrates the futility of scientific practices. Einstein felt that,
efforts to model scientific practice on “only intuition, resting on sympathetic
a series of technical steps, or to reduce understanding, can lead [to discovery
it to an algorithm. As Hilary Putnam of new laws], . . . daily effort comes
writes, “there is no such thing as the from no deliberate intention or pro-
scientific method” (72). This is not gram, but straight from the heart” (qtd.
only due to the diversity of methods in Keller 201).
within science, which range from clas- The crucial role of intuitive under-
sification and taxonomies, to mathe- standing in science does not seem to
matical methods and computer simula- be one that artificial intelligence, as it
tions, and from laboratory experiments is currently being developed, can take
involving ever more elaborate instru- on. While AI may serve as a tool of
mentation and measurement approach- immense power for researchers, there
es to speculative cosmological theory.20 seem to be core aspects of the activity
More fundamentally, the idea of “the” of science that the human mind alone
scientific method is misleading because can undertake. An increasing number
the crucial role of general intelligence of articles and books now note how
is simply not reducible to a formulaic efforts in artificial intelligence have
failed to model “general intelligence.”
20 See Ian Hacking’s work paper,
“Finding Out: Prolegomena to a Theory
of Truthfulness and Reasoning in the 21 See Stephen Gaukroger,
Sciences.” Civilization and the Culture of Science.
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 35

In The Myth of Artificial Intelligence: trillion neuronal synapses—so a
Why Computers Can’t Think Like We computer recording a simple bina-
Do, Erik J. Larson points out that the ry piece of information . . . would
enormous funds given to AI research, require 100 terabytes. The amount
which continues to rely on the induc- of storage needed to store even
tive processing of large data sets, dis- this very simple information every
place funding for more effective scien- second over the course of one day
tific research that includes deductive as for one person would be more than
well as abductive reasoning. Artificial 100,000 terabytes, or 100 peta-
intelligence’s reliance on inductive bytes. Supercomputers these days
modelling alone allows it to discover hold about 10 petabytes. And this
correlations, but provides few insights quick calculation doesn’t account
into causality; AI’s lack of understand- for the changes in connectivity
ing of underlying causes makes it error and positioning of these synaps-
prone with respect to specific cases es occurring over time. Counting
(even before considering the often how these connections change
biased and subjective rules and algo- just after a good night’s sleep or a
rithms that AI programmers write into class in mathematics amounts to .
their programs). Our efforts to devel- . . many more bytes than the esti-
op this kind of “intelligence” have not mated atoms in the universe. The
yet discovered the path to enabling AI wiring problem seems intractable
to develop a genuine scientific under- in its magnitude. (qtd. in Larson
standing of deeper forces, and causal 250)
connections at work.
Comments by Rebecca Golden of It would seem that just as animal cog-
the Genetic Literacy Project are enough nition is an inadequate model for un-
to show the potentially insurmountable derstanding the human mind, artificial
problems jointly faced by AI research- intelligence is not a convincing model
ers hoping to reproduce the functioning for our own capacity for thought; and
of the human brain, and neuroscientists perhaps our efforts to make AI in the
who hope to model the human brain, or image of our own minds are destined for
ever understand the mind completely: failure. Just as a thought, in Gabriel’s
words, cannot “catch itself in the act,”
The human brain is estimated to the mind cannot fathom itself. This is
have approximately 86 billion neu- attested to in the Bahá’í writings, and is
rons, each neuron with possibly coherent with an understanding where-
tens of thousands of synaptic con- by the mind is an essentially spiritual
nections; these little conversation phenomenon. We will explore this fur-
sites are where neurons exchange ther later, but it helpfully leads us to the
information. In total, there are broader point that science cannot fully
likely to be more than a hundred describe the world.
36 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

It is a principle of science that evi- Bahá’í writings. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá states
dence always underdetermines theory. that the concept of “nature itself” is
Evidence, in other words, can always “not a sensible reality,” but an ideal, an
support different theories, as Kuhn abstraction (Some Answered Question
emphasizes. That is why science is so 16:3). Bahá’u’lláh likewise confirms
intent on gaining ever more evidence that we will never have a total explana-
in order to endlessly adjust theory. We tion of the natural world:
never have complete evidence as there
is always more to learn and know, and Say: Nature in its essence is the
theory is likewise always open to ad- embodiment of My Name, the
justments, if not outright paradigm Maker, the Creator. Its manifes-
shifts. tations are diversified by varying
Our scientific theories, then, can causes, and in this diversity there
never be total descriptions of reality.22 are signs for men of discernment.
Mathematician and philosopher John . . . It is endowed with a power
Myhill summarizes this well: “There whose reality men of learning
is no nonpoetical description of the fail to grasp. Indeed a man of in-
whole of reality” (qtd. in W. Hatcher sight can perceive naught therein
11).23 This view is consonant with the save the effulgent splendor of
Our Name, the Creator. (Tablets,
22 Quantum mechanics has also Lawḥ-i-Ḥikmat ¶14)
been used to demonstrate science inabili-
ty to arrive at a total description of nature, This perspective returns a measure
since it understands the physical world at of enchantment to nature and confirms
the subatomic level as a matter of proba- Myhill’s suggestion that poetry—and,
bilities only, not strict causality. For a re- we might add, perhaps most especially
cent discussion, see Vahid Ranjbar’s “The the divine poetry of Revelation—pro-
Quantum State Function, Platonic Forms, vides the only total view of reality.
and the Ethereal Substance.”
23 This conclusion is based on
P F :
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, con-
firmed by the Hilbert Space model of
T L R
quantum mechanics, and reinforced by the
mathematician Gödel’s incompleteness Having briefly considered how the
theory which proves that no axiomatic sys- mind generates scientific knowledge,
tem, even basic arithmetic, can ensure both as well as the limits of the mind’s scien-
completeness and consistency. If a model tific pursuit in understanding the totali-
of basic arithmetic can only be complete if ty of reality, I now turn to the question
it is inconsistent, or consistent if it is incom-
plete, we can be sure there will never be a use of Gödel’s theory in demonstrating the
total understanding of the physical realm. difference between mind and brain, and
See physicist Roger Penrose’s Shadows William Hatcher’s Minimalism (11) for
of the Mind, especially with respect to his references to these same ideas.
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 37

of what religion, and Revelation, can view of the mind, as it highlights the
tell us about the mind. Where science mind’s capacity for astonishment and
aims at a determinate knowledge of awe, perplexity and puzzlement in our
entities and forces across well-defined encounter with aesthetically stirring
domains of phenomena in its multiple phenomena. This capacity is equally—
sub-fields, the language of Revelation or perhaps even more powerfully—en-
encompasses determinate and indeter- gaged as the mind tries to understand
minate knowledge, and experience of the contingencies and mysteries of or-
realities both physical and natural as dinary human life, and to contemplate
well as spiritual and beyond nature.24 being and reality.
Before considering what the phe- Common to art and Revelation is a
nomenon of Revelation might tell us concern with meaning, and a reliance
about the mind, it may be helpful to on metaphor as a means of express-
say a few preliminary words about the ing the inexpressible. Like philoso-
phenomenon of art, and its relation phy—and unlike science considered
to religion. The reason for this is that in isolation—religion and much of art
some of the capacities of the human intentionally explore meaning and the
mind to know and experience reality purpose of life. The pursuit of meaning
transcend intellectual or cognitive ap- can, of course, be a legitimate source
prehension. The mind, as noted above, of understanding and wisdom, and
has capacities for feeling, for moral therefore a particular kind of knowl-
and purposeful action, and also for aes- edge, distinct from the knowledge gen-
thetic perception and expression. Art, erated by science. In her book The Life
as an element of human civilization, of the Mind, Hannah Arendt explores
has long justified a more capacious how western philosophy emerged in
the Greek world largely as a matter of
wonder, in the pursuit of understand-
24 See Hatcher’s Minimalism for a ing at the level of meaning. In this
discussion of the distinct purpose and na-
pursuit, Greek philosophers, including
ture of scientific language and the language
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, encoun-
of Revelation. I had the good fortune to
know Hatcher, and learned a great deal
tered the problem of the ineffable—or
from our many conversations. Important- that which cannot be put into language.
ly, he points out that the ways of knowing Arendt notes that Plato was often reluc-
fostered by each are complementary—one tant to put his views in writing, and that
does not supersede the other: “intuition and Aristotle wrote of “truth that refused to
mysticism may give rise to transrational be expressed in discourse” (114). For
modes of knowing reality . . . [but neither] these philosophers, as well as later
divine revelation or mysticism can contra- thinkers such as Nietzsche, Heidegger,
dict the conclusions of reason in the face and Wittgenstein, who ran up against
of the same information base . . . there is the limits of language, metaphor as-
a fundamental difference between . . . the sumed a central role in their attempts
transrational and the irrational” (114).
38 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

to convey knowledge about questions garden of these inner meanings,
of meaning. Art and Revelation have, thou shalt never taste of the im-
of course, similarly relied on metaphor perishable wine of this valley. And
to express the ineffable. The examples shouldst thou taste of it, thou wilt
of this phenomenon in the Writings turn away from all else and drink
of Bahá’u’lláh are too numerous to of the cup of contentment. . . .
count; we might consider one example (Call ¶¶ 63–64)
from The Seven Valleys in which He
simultaneously explicitly speaks of the In this short paper, I am forced to
ineffability of spiritual meanings that set aside an exploration of the world
language is powerless to convey, em- of art and its different modalities of
ploys metaphor to provide a glimpse of language and expression, modali-
what lies beyond the veil of the ineffa- ties that engage the capacities of the
ble, and uses art—specifically the po- mind to know and experience reality
etry of ‘Aṭṭár and Ibn-i-Fárid—to help in an aesthetic and sensible way that
the reader understand what cannot be is less determinate than the knowing
grasped cognitively: produced by science. Art brings a
measure of indetermination and won-
The tongue faileth in describing der to our perception and knowledge
these three valleys, and speech of the world. Through the arts we
falleth short. The pen steppeth expand the powers by which we are
not into this arena, the ink leaveth able to bring alternative perspectives
only a blot. In these stations, the into view, and we develop our sense
nightingale of the heart hath oth- of a world that transcends the mere
er songs and secrets, which make physical by way of evaluations and
the heart to leap and the soul to reactions that are emotional as well
cry out, but this mystery of inner as cognitive. This growth in perspec-
meaning may be whispered only tives is not limited to our interaction
from heart to heart, and confided with art itself; as de Sousa empha-
only from breast to breast. sizes, we often then shift those emo-
The bliss of mystic know- tional evaluations into the situations
ers can be only told from heart to of human life. The arts thus help us
heart, to see the world in new ways.
A bliss no messenger can If this is true of the arts, how much
bear and no missive dare impart. more is it true of the language of divine
How many are the matters I Revelation, a form of language that
have out of weakness left unsaid; looks beyond the causal and habitu-
For my words would fail to al perceptions and realities of human
reckon them and mine every effort conceptuality, and aims to advance the
would fall short. mind’s grasp of realities that include,
O friend, till thou enter the but also transcend, the physical and
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 39

natural world.25 I turn to Revelation of Revelation as a way by which human
and its language now, drawing on ar- beings can navigate the contingencies
guments from within philosophy itself of human affairs, and develop their ca-
to support the view that religious lan- pacity for cooperation, collective inten-
guage— especially that of the most re- tions and coordinated action—features
cent Revelation—allows unique access that are unique to the human mind as
to certain ways of knowing.26 philosophy itself has argued.
If human agency, or the power of Before considering how Revelation
the human spirit, is beyond physical might shed light on the mind itself,
determinations and descriptions of let us consider in more depth how it
brain physicality, as many philosophers contributes uniquely to our ways of
claim, then it may be worth asking if knowing in general. On the matter of
we might find a better resolution to the religion, no less a secular philosopher
challenge of understanding the mind by than Jürgen Habermas has written,
relying on the concept of the rational
soul and the power of the human spirit. [R]eligion, which has largely
As a path to bringing those ideas back been deprived of its worldview
into philosophical discourse, we might functions, is still indispensable in
first investigate the capacity of the mind ordinary life for normalizing inter-
to know and engage with the language course with the extraordinary. For
of divine Revelation. Such investiga- this reason, even postmetaphysical
tion can lead us to value this language thinking continues to coexist with
religious practice . . . [and] throws
25 Indeed, the Báb explains that light on a curious dependence of
some of the power of art may come from philosophy that has forfeited its
its ability to tap into the same source that contact with the extraordinary.
gives Revelation its force: “It is the im- Philosophy, even in its postmeta-
mediate influence of the Holy Spirit that physical form, will be able neither
causes words . . . from the tongue of poets,
to replace nor repress religion as
the significance of which they themselves
long as religious language is the
are oftentimes unable to apprehend” (qtd.
in Nábil-i-A‘zam 259)
bearer of a semantic content that
26 Of course, as a believer in the is inspiring and even indispens-
Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, I consider His able, for this content eludes . . .
Writings, and those of the Báb, ‘Abdu’l- the explanatory force of philo-
Bahá, Shoghi Effendi and the Universal sophical language and continues
House of Justice as truths and guidance to resist translation into reasoning
that transcend the arguments and positions discourses. (Postmetaphysical
of philosophers. At the same time, I rec- Thinking 51)
ognize the need to advance the discourse
in philosophy around the existence of an . . . philosophy has itself fostered
“extended reality” beyond the merely a kind of cognitivist reduction and
material.
40 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

has pinned reason down to only than that of science. It brings to mind
one of its dimensions, . . . the truth astonishment and solace, peace and
of assertoric sentences . . . pur- insight. It prompts in the self-con-
suing truth is the only thing that sciousness of mind an awareness of a
still counts as rational. Questions larger sense of being and purposeful-
of justice and questions of taste, ness than arises in the mere attending
as well as questions regarding the to the practical matters of physical
truthful presentation of self, are all survival. The language of Revelation
excluded from the sphere of the conveys a sense of grace and content-
rational. (49–50) ment, but also inspires determination
and perseverance; it opens for those
The questions Habermas refers to who take such language seriously a
are reflected in the content of much re- form of knowledge that helps meet
ligious language, just as religious lan- the practical imperatives of everyday
guage also addresses the capacities of life even as it provides a worldview
feeling and purposefulness which many beyond the particulars of ordinary life.
philosophers emphasize as central to an This is a language that encompasses
understanding of the mind. Habermas both the descriptive and the figurative
explains, too, that ordinary life is by no or constitutive. Thus, the language of
means “immune to the shattering and divine Revelation expresses determi-
subversive intrusion of extraordinary nate guidance, in specific laws, and
events” (Postmetaphysical Thinking well-defined principles and values; yet
51). Revelation speaks directly to the it also involves a way of knowing and
tragedies and crises facing humani- experiencing life and the mystery of
ty, providing a context for the mind being itself. it. It conveys more general
to grapple with death itself, and with and sometimes indeterminate expres-
the appalling levels of personal suffer- sions of aspirations and noble goals
ing that exist in the world; yet even in that lead to different interpretations,
confronting these areas of human ex- and does so in a language that speaks to
perience that have so troubled human young and old, the humble or sophisti-
thought across history, religious lan- cated, with an expression that can be
guage can inspire a sense of astonish- understood by all. These two qualities
ment, awe and beauty, and bring about of language together capture realities
epiphanies, heightened excitement, of truth, goodness and beauty, enabling
love, and joy. the mind to gain an awareness and, to
The language of divine Revelation some extent, understanding of both its
provides a source of inspiration and immediate reality and an extended, in-
guidance that widens the ways by which finite reality that lies just beyond the
the mind can know and experience the horizon of our finite and humble lives.
world. It is a language that is more Genuine religious language
expansive, and often less determinate, thus takes advantage of the mind’s
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 41

composite of capacities and ways of the time of the Buddha, the emergence
knowing and experiencing the world, of Greek thought, and the Revelation
through thoughts, beliefs, feelings, of the Old Testament, through to the
and purposes. The mind relies on Revelations of Christ and up to that
these capacities seamlessly, adjusting of Muḥammad—have begun to doc-
flexibly to different contexts, but it is ument the ways religion stimulated
always able to be inspired and guided the advance of human capacities of
by noble values and principles that, thought, feeling, and purpose. Bellah
over successive Revelations from God, details impacts of religion on the evo-
human beings have gradually come to lution of the mind before and during
understand. Exposed to such language, the Axial Age, arguing that religion
whether in the form of the Sermon on was the impulse behind significant
the Mount, the verses of the Qur’án, or shifts in the cognitive independence
the speeches attributed to the Buddha, of the human mind.28 Jaspers, for his
human beings gain insights that have part, wrote that the Axial Age formed
allowed them to overcome and tran- “the spiritual foundations of humanity
scend the contingencies of life and . . . foundations on which humanity
providence—contingencies that, as still subsists today” (qtd. in Nirenberg
Bahá’u’lláh points out, are often “too and Nirenberg 98). This scholarship
mysterious for the mind of man to demonstrates a powerful relationship
comprehend” on a cognitive level between religion, the human mind and
(Kitáb-i-Íqán 167).27 the advance of human civilization. It
While this developmental effect of does so by understanding religion as a
Revelation on the mind can be attested general institution throughout history,
to by the individual, its effects can also rather than focusing on specific faith
be seen from a historical perspective. communities or religious labels that
Scholars such as Robert Bellah, build- are often weighed down by dogma and
ing on Karl Jaspers’ concept of the clerical interpretations that cloud the
Axial Age—a period of cultural fer- originality of genuine Revelation lan-
ment measured variously from around guage. Viewed in this perspective, his-
tory testifies to the impact of religion
27 Bahá’u’lláh’s own language of on human civilization with respect to
Revelation consists of an enormous body culture, rationality, morality and lan-
of Writings of equally enormous range. guage itself.
He provides a practical vision of human We can reflect, in light of this view
purpose and relationship, inviting all the of religion, on the importance of
members of the human race to live in “the
utmost love and harmony, with friendliness 28 In addition to Bellah’s works
and fellowship,” and assures us that unity, Religion in Human Evolution and The
cooperation and love among the peoples of Axial Age and Its Consequences, see also
the world that “can illuminate the whole Ben Schewel’s Seven Ways of Looking at
earth” (Gleanings 132:3). Religion.
42 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

Revelation to the process of learning knowledge and learning, we could
that Tomasello refers to as “the ratchet broaden and deepen a shared view of
effect” by which “cumulative cultural the world in both its physical and spir-
evolution” occurs in the “social learn- itual dimensions. This would mean ex-
ing” of humanity. Tomasello views the panding and deepening our perception
human mind’s cooperative nature (dis- of social reality, refining our powers of
cussed earlier in this paper) as arguably judgement, and elevating the meaning
its essential quality. Habermas’ prodi- and purpose of our lives.
gious philosophical work reflects the Here I would like to suggest how,
same idea: human beings advance by given what we have reviewed about the
a process of social reasoning in which nature of learning in a social context,
minds are engaged cooperatively and the role of language in the mind, and
communicatively in unending conver- the particular attributes of the language
sations that touch contexts of affec- of Revelation, a certain kind of “reli-
tivity, cognition, and purposefulness, gious” practice might be considered as
in an ongoing assessment of the con- a powerful tool for humanity to resolve
sequences of our actions with a view the challenges it faces. The example
to establishing better reasons for sub- provided—the social practices prompt-
sequent and better coordinated action. ed by Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation and
Yet, even if the Axial Age provides elucidated by the Universal House of
abundant evidence of the historical Justice—may not look like most peo-
role of the language of Revelation in ple’s idea of a religious practice. But it
fostering this fundamental human ca- is, I would argue, a practice that both
pacity for cumulative cultural develop- relies on the capacity of Revelation
ment through cooperation, can it fulfill language to engage the human mind in
the same function today? Humanity a unique way, and takes advantage of
faces enormous challenges: environ- the nature of social learning. It is a kind
mental harm, gross inequities across of practice, in short, that can give the
and within countries, racism, preju- observer a reason to have confidence
dices and injustices that cause appall- in the human mind’s ability to generate
ing suffering to many, to name a few. the collective intentionality and action
These challenges represent an evident needed to resolve the crises it faces.
failure of human solidarity. Despite an It provides evidence of the power and
understanding of the human mind as enormous influence that Revelation
uniquely designed for cooperation and can have on the processes of mind in its
for collective intentionality, we seem learning to build better, more peaceful
to be falling short of the minimal level and prosperous communities.
of cooperation demanded by the exi- Over the past twenty-five years, the
gencies of our times. With a renewed Bahá’í community has been engaged in
confidence in the power of the human a collective, worldwide learning pro-
mind and its capacity for cooperation, cess, relying on an evolving conceptual
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 43

framework detailed in a series of let- with newer, better ways of viewing the
ters of the Universal House of Justice. world. With continued study of the lan-
The process of learning has centered guage of Revelation, and with efforts
on a systematic educational program to apply its guidance through action,
involving study circles for adults, ju- our perceptions widen, deepen, and are
nior youth empowerment programs, enriched.
and children’s classes. This program This systematic process promotes
of education involves study of the lan- in its participants a deeper apprecia-
guage of Revelation and authorized tion of the language of the Revelation
interpretations, embedded in extensive of Bahá’u’lláh, whether one believes
conversation and discussion, as well as that He is a Manifestation of God or
social practices undertaken by partici- thinks of Him merely as one more
pants. This process encourages efforts among many educators and teachers of
to generate a collective intentionality humanity whose language and ways of
that then allows for coordinated action expression make sense, are coherent,
characterized by creativity and imagi- and are also stimulating and encour-
nation. Participants learn to apply the aging. As all divine Revelations have
guidance studied, and then reflect and done, Bahá’u’lláh’s both elucidates
converse together about such actions the spiritual aspects of life and out-
and their consequences. This serves lines a more appropriate relationship
to stimulate advances in both individ- to the material aspects of reality. In
ual and collective learning among the language that is at once figurative and
participants, whether Bahá’í adherents, informative, explicit and explanatory,
their friends, families or neighbors.29 the Revelation addresses and activates
This process emphasizes both cog- those human realities of purposeful ac-
nitive learning and the development of tion, thought and feeling.
spiritual qualities, including attitudes, The impacts of the language of
feelings, aspirations, and noble goals Revelation through the learning pro-
and purposes. It relies on appropriate cess described above are thus not mea-
kinds of social practices that involve sured in external outcomes alone. In
action accompanied by others. This this shared and cooperative enterprise
is learning by doing, as described by of learning, there is an emphasis on
Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics: standards of the right and the good.
“For the things we have to learn be- There is an assumption of the nobility
fore we can do, we learn by doing” of those who participate in the learning
(qtd. in Kern 259). We take actions and process, which stimulates aspirations
we learn, replacing mistaken concepts to attain to higher levels of service,
sacrifice, nobility, and positive action.
29 For a philosophical analysis of The mind’s self-understanding and its
this educational process, see Sona Farid- inextricable sociality mutually rein-
Arbab’s Moral Empowerment: In Quest of force each other, as the personal drive
a Pedagogy.
44 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

to surpass one’s previous self-under- as protagonists in the development of
standing is simultaneously a drive to new ways of life.
contribute to greater social cohesion Central to this kind of development
and unity among all who participate. is growth in the mind’s capacity to
This may be understood as a process understand reality. Beyond a more in-
of self-transendence as described by formed reading of the reality of both
philosopher William Desmond: the material and spiritual nature of vil-
lages, towns, and city neighborhoods,
Religious community binds to- participants learn to perceive and pen-
gether the human and the divine, etrate social reality at a deeper level.
and out of this it transforms the This process involves a re-evaluation
bonds holding humans together. of the standards we rely on in our judg-
The sources of social power un- ments of others, of the truth, the good,
dergo a transformation that car- the right, and the beautiful. There is
ries human power to the edge of as much to learn from false starts and
humanness. We understand pow- mistakes as there is from positive expe-
er as given all along, a gift from riences. For it is not only the concepts
motiveless generosity, motiveless that come most quickly to mind that
goodness beyond the goodness of hold us in their grasp, and from which
the gift, rousing in community the we try to shake free, but deeper, more
vision of humans living together ingrained standards that we may not
an ethics of generosity in the finite initially think to question when per-
image of the ultimate generosity. ceiving, judging and acting. These are
(486) uncovered and explored by way of the
kinds of intense discussion and conver-
This process of learning, by way of a sations that occur in the study circles.
mind that develops feelings, attitudes, In describing this process, Paul
cognition, perception, and purposeful- Lample draws attention to an im-
ness relies on personal and collective age, developed by Otto Neurath, that
efforts to translate the Revelation lan- McDowell also uses to explain human
guage into advances in skills, qualities learning. We are, as it were, at sea on a
of mind, and action. The participation ship that we have to rebuild, one piece
of a few million people around the at a time, while still staying afloat. We
world has contributed to an evolving replace by bits and pieces one timber
framework for action that relies on of the ship—one concept, or group of
cycles of study, action, reflection, and concepts—after another, making grad-
deliberation and conversation among ual adjustments as we come to learn
groups of friends who begin to see new ways of thinking about the world
themselves, their local communities (174). “[T]hinking,” as McDowell puts
and neighborhoods, as well as their it, “is under a standing obligation to re-
local and regional Bahá’í institutions flect about and criticize the standards
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 45

by which at any time, it takes itself to as our inherited conceptual frame-
be governed” (Mind and World 81). works come under scrutiny in the light
This work of rebuilding our “ship of cast by the language of Revelation, we
concepts” is facilitated by the religious learn to see with our “own eyes and not
language at the center of the learning through the eyes of others,” calibrat-
process being described here. By sur- ing our capacity to exercise judgment,
facing the spiritual nature of the world in recognition that “justice is [God’s]
we have in view, and of the relation- gift to thee and the sign of [His] lov-
ships between the realities within it, ing-kindness. Set it then before thine
this language helps the mind advance eyes” (Bahá’u’lláh, Arabic Hidden
in its understanding of the meaning Words no. 4).30
of things, and thereby build sound ‘Abdu’l-Bahá writes,
concepts, new ways of perceiving the
world (including other human beings). let them open wide their eyes and
It develops our capacity to reason uncover the inner realities of all
through the feelings, attitudes, beliefs, things,… Our spiritual perception,
norms, values, and purposes that jus- our inward sight must be opened,
tify our actions. Our interactions with so that we can see the signs and
others can take on a sense and a feeling traces of God’s spirit in every-
that is spiritual, not because we turn thing. Everything can reflect to us
away from the material dimension, the light of the Spirit. (qtd. in Ruhi
but because we come to see greater Institute 9)
coherence between the material and
the spiritual dimensions of reality. We From what has been described, it
develop finer discriminations in how should be clear that in our involvement
we see and hear the world in both its in this learning process, we need to
material and spiritual aspects, relying adopt the scientific approach elaborat-
on our rational faculties and capacities ed on earlier. Where scientists learn to
for knowledge as well as our capacities look beyond the mere surface observa-
for feeling and purposefulness. tions of the object world in order to de-
Genuine religious language is about termine the underlying forces and enti-
unity, love and understanding, moral ties operating in nature, participants in
qualities, and the living of a life that this process learn to look beyond the
moves a person closer to God. It is a surface of culture and external reality,
language that deals with features of the and the limitations of that way of per-
world that can guide our perceptual ception, opening their minds to a realm
attention, allowing us to see the world
in the light of those spiritual qualities 30 For a discussion of the nature of
of love, mutual understanding, care, this judgment, see John S. Hatcher’s arti-
kindness, and justice. Throughout our cle in this issue, “The Mizán of Affect in
involvement in this learning process, Material versus Metaphysical Models of
Human Consciousness.”
46 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

of spirituality beyond nature. “It is true. I will conclude this paper, then,
common nowadays to think of science by considering whether a view of the
and religion as opposed. To the con- mind that emerges from the Bahá’í
trary, faith and reason are twins born of writings is, if not demonstrably true in
sameness and difference,” write David a scientific sense, capable of grounding
and Ricardo Nirenberg (97). Science, the philosophical view of the mind pre-
in its determinate ways of knowing, sented thus far.
represents an unquestionable advance
for humanity, but religion in the form P S :
of the divine language of Revelation T M S
provides another avenue of knowledge
and experience that complements, over- A further question, then: Is it not time
laps and extends the ways that science to recover a view that brings together
engages the world. Our understanding, an understanding of our range of mind-
whether in science, the arts, religion, or ful capacities for thought, feeling, ex-
in the practical course of ordinary life, pressiveness and purposefulness with
is always a capacity of human agency a ready acceptance, too, of the limita-
(or, we might say, the human soul)— tions of mind before the infinite reality
an expression of a mind that finds itself beyond the horizon of our finite and
in both an object world of spatially determinate knowledge?
extended entities, energies and forc- The mind and, therefore, human ac-
es, but also in a space of non-physical tion have a degree of freedom that lies
abstraction and ideals. The advance- outside the laws of causality that the
ment of human civilization depends natural and physical sciences generally
on a deepening of our understanding, take as given. While many contempo-
based on all capacities of mind: the rary philosophers persuasively argue
instrumental and designative, but also that natural science is not enough to
the expressive, the cooperative, and the fully understand the human mind, the
communicative, along with the mind’s Bahá’í idea of mind goes a step further
sense of value and purpose. in holding that the mind has a relation-
I have suggested here that interac- ship to the soul.
tion with the language of Revelation, The mind may be dependent on
particularly in a process of social the health of the brain and body, but
learning with others, draws on and it is not entirely of that world, for it
strengthens the capacities of the human reaches into a higher level of reality,
mind in a way that can help us address however uncanny or other-worldly
our collective problems, and advance this may sound to philosophers. If we
civilization. We may agree with this understand the supernatural correct-
proposition, of course, without also ly as a quality of spirituality and the
believing that Revelation, or the spe- true nature of the human spirit, we can
cific claims it makes about reality, are attain to an understanding that both
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 47

recognizes the constraints imposed by changes in the brain are often generated
nature, and the resulting importance of through deliberate practices—habits of
science and material means, and yet will that lead to actions. Arendt similar-
transcends those constraints in certain ly argues effectively that will is real, and
ways that rely on our learning from the is different from mere thinking. Human
language of divine Revelation. beings do manage to develop character
Neuroscience and studies of animal and right conduct, and we all are wit-
cognition are, thus, certainly necessary ness to how these can often manifest
and essential to human advancement. themselves against terrible odds in the
A scientific understanding of the brain exigencies of human life.
serves to inform a better understanding We also recognize limitations that
of the mind.31 Physical happenings af- we cannot overcome in principle.
fect the brain, causing changes in our Bahá’u’lláh comments on the limita-
minds. Lack of sleep, poor nutrition, tions of any total understanding of
and physical injuries provide all the ev- the mind given its relationship with
idence we need in this respect. It is also the soul, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá notes that
true that our conscious and unconscious “the uttermost limit of [the power of
choices—about what to think, how to comprehension’s] flight is to compre-
judge, and what simple or complex ac- hend [only] the realities, signs, and
tions we undertake (from drinking cof- properties of contingent things” (Some
fee to learning to ski downhill)—also Answered Questions 58:3).
cause changes in the physical state of Writing to Dr. Auguste Forel, an ear-
the brain.32 There are influences going ly co-founder of the first neuron theory
both ways—brain to mind and mind to of the brain, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá states that
brain—but not all correlations amount “for the mind to manifest itself, the hu-
to causal explanations. Davidson ar- man body must be whole; and a sound
gues—effectively, in my view—that mind cannot be but in a sound body.”
there are no psycho-physical laws: But He also made it clear that the mind,
though some brain occurrences that then while “circumscribed”, is also beyond
lead to mindful actions, and some mind- the brain and body by the power of the
ful actions (the decision to drink coffee, soul:
for instance) impact the brain, there
always remains a measure of free will. It is through the power of the soul
The brain is plastic and adaptable, and that the mind comprehendeth,
imagineth and exerteth its influ-
31 Indeed, Shoghi Effendi writes ence, whilst the soul is a power
that one of the important future pursuits of that is free. . . . The mind is cir-
humanity will be “the sharpening and re- cumscribed, the soul limitless.
finement of the human brain” (204). . . . all other beings, whether of
32 See Sanjay Gupta’s excellent the mineral, the vegetable or the
summary of keeping the brain healthy in animal world, cannot deviate from
the aptly titled Keep Sharp.
48 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

the laws of nature, nay, all are Our human agency operates in a
the slaves thereof. Man, howev- self-conscious way at a level above and
er, though in body the captive of beyond what natural or physical sci-
nature is yet free in his mind and ence can account for by mere descrip-
soul, and hath the mastery over tion and explanation of causal mech-
nature. anism. In considering how the mind
develops a view of the world by way
‘Abdu’l-Bahá thus asserts that there of its relationships with other minds
is physical causality, or determinism, through language and concepts, Pippin
in the material realm, yet freedom, summarizes well the views of many
spontaneity and autonomy for the other philosophers when he states that,
mind, however circumscribed or lim- “there is something about some human
ited. This opposition between freedom capacities that . . . will never be expli-
and determinism has long been a co- cable scientifically, no matter our even-
nundrum in philosophy—how can they tual knowledge of ‘feedback loops’ and
exist in the same world? brain reorganization” (Interanimations
Yet nowhere do we find ‘Abdu’l- 65).
Bahá bothered by this problem. He ‘Abdu’l-Bahá makes a similar point,
views our minds as straddling the phys- yet draws a bolder conclusion:
ical and spiritual dimensions of a more
extended reality encompassing both. In Man possesses conscious intelli-
contemporary philosophy, too, there is gence and reflection; nature does
greater acceptance of the compatibility not. This is an established fun-
of necessity and determinism in nature damental among philosophers .
and the freedom of human mind and . . The ideal faculties of man, in-
human action. This acceptance may cluding the capacity for scientific
stem in part from the realization of the acquisition, are beyond nature’s
impossibility, in principle, of ever ar- ken. These are powers whereby
riving at an explanation of the totality man is differentiated and distin-
of the physical and natural universe.33 guished from all other forms of
Nagel’s idea of an “extended reality,” life . . . Notwithstanding the gift
some of which may be open to scien- of this supernatural power, it is
tific discovery, but some remaining most amazing that materialists
forever beyond science, or McGinn’s still consider themselves within
“mysterium” in physical reality, forev- the bonds and captivity of nature.
er beyond science, are useful ways of (Promulgation 20:5)
considering the impossibility of ever
knowing everything about physical or An “intelligence” and “ideal faculties
natural reality. . . . beyond nature’s ken” puts the mind,
including its “capacity for scientific
acquisition,” beyond an explanation by
33 See footnote no. 23.
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 49

natural science. Many contemporary that also involves the spiritual. The
philosophers would agree with this material and spiritual are understood as
assessment; but ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s ref- dimensions of one single reality. This
erence to the “supernatural” is a term model is not any more “other-world-
philosophers resist. McDowell men- ly” than any other that recognizes the
tions the “supernatural” as an option immateriality of our consciousness,
for understanding the mind, but quick- thought, feeling and purposefulness. It
ly dismisses it. He writes that we need is a way of understanding realities of
not be bothered by “the fear of super- human life that are abstract and ide-
naturalism,” and argues for an explana- al, simultaneously beyond the natural
tion of the human mind’s uniqueness, world and yet immediately at hand in
however inexplicable by natural sci- the commonplace experience of our
ence, as a “second nature” (Mind and mindedness or consciousness.
World 84).34 Nagel considers “divine As Gabriel writes, “[a]s minded
intervention” as one way to explain the beings . . . we humans are in contact
evolution of the human mind but also with infinitely many immaterial real-
sets it aside, opting instead for an un- ities” (Meaning 9). These realities of
derstanding of mind that will have to mind can be called “spiritual” if “su-
wait for a currently unavailable, but he pernatural” is too far a reach, though
hopes eventual, scientific understand- “spiritual” may also raise objections in
ing of teleology that might explain the a culture that arguably lacks a strong
evolution of consciousness and mind sense of the sacred or the holy, and
(Mind and Cosmos 66–67). McDowell where material aspects of life eclipse
and Nagel both dismiss the “supernat- the spiritual. Yet such realities of mind
ural” and “divine intervention” based are “outside of nature,” beyond the
on a conventional understanding of the biological and natural, and though
“supernatural.” Yet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá un- they may be immaterial in mind, once
derstands the “supernatural” as simply translated into human action they have
that which is beyond nature. Thus, a effects on the world that always carry
mind can be embedded in nature and both material and human, or “spiritu-
the physical but also in a larger reality al,” consequences.
To support the contention that the
34 McDowell relies on Wittgen- mind is in essence a spiritual or super-
stein’s statement that, “Commanding, natural phenomenon, we can consider
questioning, recounting, chatting, are as the insufficiency of considering the
much part of our natural history as walk- mind, or the human being, as a purely
ing, eating, drinking” in order to justify natural entity. As Pippin argues, human
his use of the term “second nature” but his beings have “no naturally determined
point, like Pippin’s, is that “commanding, niche in the world” (Interanimations
questioning, recounting” are beyond the 24). We find our place in the harmo-
natural world by the uniqueness of our hu- nization of our interaction with the
man mind.
50 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 32.3-4 2022

physical world in which we are embod- 55:6). “The mind itself, reason itself,
ied, and of our purposes and intentions, is an ideal reality and not tangible”
meanings, norms and language that are (Promulgation 111:13). It is the human
thoroughly conceptual, abstract, and mind that generates “the sciences, arts,
immaterial in both our individual and inventions, crafts and discoveries”
collective consciousness. The human (Some Answered Questions 48:4), “for
creature is never a “natural man,” as it is only physically that man resem-
Hobbes and Rousseau both imagined bles the lower creation, with regard
for their differing arguments about hu- to his intellect he is totally unlike it”
man nature. The human cannot be nat- (Paris Talks 23:3).
ural, because, as argued at the outset of The soul is spiritual and outside of
the paper, she does not live primarily nature, and so too is the human mind
in an environment, but in a world. The in its inseparable relationship to the
human being is able to conceive and soul. Unless we realize who we are as
inhabit alternative worlds and orders of human creatures, different in kind and
reality, from the political to the moral quality from animals, and from nature
and from the aesthetic to the spiritual, and the physical world, we will strug-
escaping the here and now of a natural gle to understand and embrace the re-
life, living in worlds either shaped by sponsibility that devolves upon us, as
inspiration or demeaned by a degraded spiritual creatures, to look after the nat-
imagination. What might be, what can ural world as we should, preserving its
be, and what is valuable and desirable integrity and health, while advancing
in human life, always lies beyond our our own health, spiritually and materi-
biological and bodily needs—yet such ally, personally and collectively.
a human life must also serve those
needs and be in harmony with the natu- Walk thou high above the world
ral environment if we are to survive as of being . . . Those who have re-
a human race. jected God and firmly cling to
“Before all else, God created the Nature as it is in itself are, verily,
mind.” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá cites this Holy bereft of knowledge and wisdom.
Tradition on the first page of The Secret (Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets, Lawḥ-i-
of Divine Civilization, and explains Hikmat ¶¶17–21)
that “[t]his supreme emblem of God
stands first in the order of creation and In this rapid overview of the mind
first in rank.” He refers to “the intel- and the “power of the human spirit,”
lect and wisdom” as “luminous lights”, much has been left unexplored. Of
and states that “grace and splendour” late, there has been an outpouring of
derive “from wisdom and the power of thoughtful publications about con-
thought.” The mind is “the power of sciousness, mindedness, sentience
the human spirit . . . the light that shines and sapience, wisdom and meaning,
from it” (Some Answered Questions knowledge and sound reasoning. This
Mind, “the Power of the Human Spirit” 51

paper represents a modest effort at engaging in the philosophical discourse in this
field. Philosophy itself remains a discipline within which many thinkers, though
by no means all, maintain a level of respect for religion in spite of the advance of
secularism. With that in mind, I hope that this paper may inspire Bahá’ís and like-
minded individuals to read philosophy, including the works of philosophers who
do not share their own views, trusting that continued earnest efforts from seekers of
truth will advance our collective understanding of the relationship between human
agency and the mind, casting light on the mind’s relationship to the “human spirit”
and “the rational soul.”

W C

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