Even Noam Chomsky's generative linguistics is revealed under scrutiny to have substantial problems. "A serious appreciation of cognitive science requires us to rethink philosophy from the beginning, in a way that would put it more in touch with the reality of how we think." In other words, no Platonic forms, no Cartesian mind-body duality, no Kantian pure logic. Why so daunting? "Cognitive science-the empirical study of the mind-calls upon us to create a new, empirically responsible philosophy, a philosophy consistent with empirical discoveries about the nature of mind," they write. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson take on the daunting task of rebuilding Western philosophy in alignment with three fundamental lessons from cognitive science: The mind is inherently embodied, thought is mostly unconscious, and abstract concepts are largely metaphorical. By plunging the reader into an extraordinary variety of colorful situations involving language, thought, and memory, by revealing bit by bit the constantly churning cognitive mechanisms normally completely hidden from view, and by discovering in them one central, invariant core-the incessant, unconscious quest for strong analogical links to past experiences-this book puts forth a radical and deeply surprising new vision of the act of thinking. Like Gödel, Escher, Bach before it, Surfaces and Essences will profoundly enrich our understanding of our own minds. Analogy-making, far from happening at rare intervals, occurs at all moments, defining thinking from top to toe, from the tiniest and most fleeting thoughts to the most creative scientific insights. The answer to all these questions, of course, is analogy-making-the meat and potatoes, the heart and soul, the fuel and fire, the gist and the crux, the lifeblood and the wellsprings of thought.
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Why did two-year-old Camille proudly exclaim, “I undressed the banana!”? Why do people who hear a story often blurt out, “Exactly the same thing happened to me!” when it was a completely different event? How do we recognize an aggressive driver from a split-second glance in our rearview mirror? What in a friend’s remark triggers the offhand reply, “That’s just sour grapes”? What did Albert Einstein see that made him suspect that light consists of particles when a century of research had driven the final nail in the coffin of that long-dead idea? Often this means the spontaneous evocation of words, sometimes idioms, sometimes the triggering of nameless, long-buried memories.
How does it do so? The ceaseless hail of input triggers analogies galore, helping us to pinpoint the essence of what is going on. Our brain’s job is to try to make sense of this unpredictable, swarming chaos of stimuli.
We are constantly faced with a swirling and intermingling multitude of ill-defined situations. Now, with his trademark wit and special talent for making complex ideas vivid, he has partnered with Sander to put forth a highly novel perspective on cognition.
Hofstadter has been grappling with the mysteries of human thought for over thirty years. Note that you can use the browser extension or bookmarklet from any computer even without installing TheBrain.This is the simple but unorthodox premise that Pulitzer Prize–winning author Douglas Hofstadter and French psychologist Emmanuel Sander defend in their new work. Once you have logged in, the page will be added to your Brainbox. If you have not logged in to TheBrain from the browser, you will be prompted to do so. A small window will appear in the top right corner showing the status. Once you have setup your browser as described above, go to a page you want to add to BrainBox and click on the extension or bookmarklet.
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