Metaphors and Action Schemes: Some Themes in Intellectual HistoryAll our abstract ideas are based on metaphors and action schemes. Jean Piaget did voluminous research on how thought develops in children through assimilation of action schemes. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson have done pioneering work on metaphors and action schemes in everyday thinking. This book builds on those foundations, looking at the role played by metaphors and action schemes in the history of ideas. The author begins his argument by taking a critical look at the philosophy of metaphor from Aristotle to the present. While he sees metaphor as simply conceiving one thing in terms of another, he points out that this is an inexhaustible process, because the context in which the process takes place is always changing. Change opens up new possibilities of similarity. Thus, the metaphor is an open door into a space of infinite possibilities. |
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Page 14
... space . These manipulations may not mimic habitual action routines . They may be quite innovative ( especially in math- ematics and the arts ) . Hence , it would be misleading to equate them with action schemes , though through use they ...
... space . These manipulations may not mimic habitual action routines . They may be quite innovative ( especially in math- ematics and the arts ) . Hence , it would be misleading to equate them with action schemes , though through use they ...
Page 15
... space , and mind , as they have been conceived by the major thinkers of their period and culture . My selection of topics is meant to be representative rather than comprehensive . To minimize the tendency to pursue only what interests ...
... space , and mind , as they have been conceived by the major thinkers of their period and culture . My selection of topics is meant to be representative rather than comprehensive . To minimize the tendency to pursue only what interests ...
Page 23
... space , time , enti- ties — then are bifurcated out of the activity of the whole . The whole is an ongoing process in which structures emerge , like eddies in a river , some of which are rela- tively stable and appear as entities.10 ...
... space , time , enti- ties — then are bifurcated out of the activity of the whole . The whole is an ongoing process in which structures emerge , like eddies in a river , some of which are rela- tively stable and appear as entities.10 ...
Page 25
... space - time continuum , on the other . They represent a mathematical metaphor that in words says roughly that in some sense " gravity is a mathematical property of spacetime . " I paraphrase only to characterize and not to give a ...
... space - time continuum , on the other . They represent a mathematical metaphor that in words says roughly that in some sense " gravity is a mathematical property of spacetime . " I paraphrase only to characterize and not to give a ...
Page 27
... space , a throwback to the primitive stage of thought but obviously aligned with the more mechanical refine- ment . When Galileo began systematically to measure forces , he did so in terms of velocity and acceleration ( especially in ...
... space , a throwback to the primitive stage of thought but obviously aligned with the more mechanical refine- ment . When Galileo began systematically to measure forces , he did so in terms of velocity and acceleration ( especially in ...
Contents
21 | |
43 | |
Action Schemes and Topological Transformations | 65 |
The Ancient World | 86 |
The Medieval Period | 117 |
The Renaissance | 133 |
The Enlightenment to 1900 | 154 |
The Twentieth Century | 181 |
Glossary of Metaphors and Schemes | 216 |
Notes | 229 |
Bibliography | 261 |
Index | 278 |
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Common terms and phrases
abstract action schemes analysis ancient Aristotle arts basic becomes behavior body Breath century Chicago classical cognitive complex conceived concept construed cosmic order culture defined depersonalized deployed discursive thought divine domain dream dynamics Einstein élan vital elements equations experience fifth element force geometry George Lakoff Greek human Ibid ideal ideas image schema indwelling agency intellectual history isomorphic logic manipulation Mark Johnson mathematical meaning Mechanism metaphor medieval mental meta metaphor deployment metaphorand mind Mirror metaphor move myths nature notion One/Many operations ousia particles Pattern metaphor perception Philosophy phor physical Plato Platonic ideals Plotinus Princeton principle properties prototype Psychology quantum theory reality reason relations Renaissance revolution Rhetoric of Science rhetorical Robert Maynard Hutchins root metaphors schemata scientific sense Silvano Arieti simple social space spatial structure symbolic things tion topological space topological transformations trans underlying University Press visual Western words York
Popular passages
Page 124 - Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God.
Page 235 - We see that things which lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result.
Page 235 - The words or the language, as they are written or spoken, do not seem to play any role in my mechanism of thought. The psychical entities which seem to serve as elements in thought are certain signs and more or less clear images which can be "voluntarily
Page 105 - The work of the creator, whenever he looks to the unchangeable and fashions the form and nature of his work after an unchangeable pattern, must necessarily be made fair and perfect; but when he looks to the created only, and uses a created pattern, it is not fair or perfect.
Page 22 - This power, first put in action by the will and understanding, and retained under their irremissive, though gentle and unnoticed, control (laxis effertur habenis} reveals itself in the balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant qualities...
Page 22 - ... opposite or discordant qualities: of sameness, with difference; of the general, with the concrete; the idea, with the image; the individual, with the representative; the sense of novelty and freshness, with old and familiar objects; a more than usual state of emotion, with more than usual order...
Page 57 - To whom the patriarch of mankind replied : O favourable spirit, propitious guest, Well hast thou taught the way that might direct Our knowledge, and the scale of nature set From centre to circumference, whereon, In contemplation of created things, By steps we may ascend to God.
Page 78 - The utmost we say of them, even when they operate with greatest vigor, is, that they represent their object in so lively a manner, that we could almost .say we feel or see it : but, except the mind be disordered by disease or madness, they never can arrive at. such a pitch of vivacity, as to render these perceptions altogether undistinguishable. All the colors of poetry, however splendid, can never paint natural objects in such a manner as to make the description be taken for a real landscape. The...