The Immunological Mind

The Immunological Mind proposes that the human mind is not an independent invention but an evolutionary continuation of the immune system’s logic. Recognition, memory, and trust – traditionally treated as cognitive functions – first emerged as biological strategies of survival: distinguishing self from other, encoding past encounters, and maintaining tolerance toward the familiar.

Drawing on current neuroimmunology, cognitive science, and philosophy of biology, the paper argues that cognition operates as a meta‑immune system: a symbolic defense of coherence rather than of tissue. DNA damage and repair in both neurons and lymphocytes illustrate a shared mechanism of learning through controlled injury and repair. Immune tolerance mirrors psychological forgetting and emotional regulation. The same molecules – cytokines, complement proteins, and NAD⁺ – link inflammation, mood, and memory, blurring the line between mind and body.

Bridging neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and philosophy, the work reframes memory as repair, perception as recognition, and reasoning as tolerance. It suggests that cognition, society, and culture are recursive expressions of one ancient grammar: the logic of survival through selective openness.