"The Way We Think is a dazzling tour of the complexities of
human imagination."--George Lakoff, co-author of Philosophy in the
Flesh and Where Mathematics Comes From. In its first two decades,
much of cognitive science focused on such mental functions as
memory, learning, symbolic thought, and language acquisition--the
functions in which the human mind most closely resembles a
computer. But humans are more than computers, and the cutting-edge
research in cognitive science is increasingly focused on the more
mysterious, creative aspects of the mind.
The Way We Think is a landmark synthesis that exemplifies this
new direction. The theory of conceptual blending is already widely
known in laboratories throughout the world; this book is its
definitive statement. Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner argue that
all learning and all thinking consist of blends of metaphors based
on simple bodily experiences. These blends are then themselves
blended together into an increasingly rich structure that makes up
our mental functioning in modern society. A child''s entire
development consists of learning and navigating these blends.
The Way We Think shows how this blending operates; how it is
affected by and gives rise to language, identity, and concept of
category; and the rules by which we use blends to understand ideas
that are new to us. The result is a bold, exciting, and accessible
new view of how the mind works.