When do babies get minds?

[CHRISTINE77]

At conception. At that point vision, sound, touch, taste, thought itself are one.
All by which you relate to the world around you is in its undifferentiated splendour and holiness.

I love your answer. A mind is cosmic. The greeks called this “nous” and it implies both the potential and the actuality of the human mind. God breathes this potential into each new soul.

When I watch newborns and little children, they seem closer to God than we who have been corrupted by the world. Their minds are pure. Remember what Jesus said about little children?

 

[Anselm33]

We believe as Catholics that a baby becomes human, and receives a soul, at conception. But do they also receive minds at conception? Are we self-aware from conception? Do we have subjective experiences from conception? Do we have thoughts from conception? Do we have free will from conception?

Phillippe Rochat, a psychologist at Emory University has studied the development of self-awareness, etc. in infants and toddlers… Here’s his report.…interesting stuff. (Note: the link will give you a downloaded pdf version of his study, “Five Levels of Self-awareness as they Unfold Early in Life”)
It’s an important issue I think in terms of the philosophy of mind–is the brain a meat computer, an assembly of neurons, totally materialistic, or is there something else there–are we endowed with reason and conscience by the Holy Spirit?

 

[Nelka]

We believe as Catholics that a baby becomes human, and receives a soul, at conception. But do they also receive minds at conception? Are we self-aware from conception? Do we have subjective experiences from conception? Do we have thoughts from conception? Do we have free will from conception?

I think they have minds straight away just like a sponge that is waiting for water.

Did you remember what life was like inside the womb? I don’t.

Yes I do and I was sick to death just lying there staring at one wall all day.