You can't understand Twenty-first-Century Politics with an Eighteenth-Century Brain.
George LakoffRead
Moreover, metaphor is typically viewed as characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action. For this reason, most people think they can get along perfectly well without metaphor. We have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.
Interpretation
Metaphors are not just linguistic tools but fundamental to our thinking and actions.
George Lakoff emphasizes that metaphors extend beyond mere language; they are deeply embedded in the way we think and behave. Many people underestimate the importance of metaphors in their daily lives, viewing them only as fanciful language rather than recognizing their integral role in shaping our conceptual frameworks and guiding our actions.
In practice
In a lecture about creativity, one might quote Lakoff to illustrate the importance of metaphors in inspiring innovation.
You can't understand Twenty-first-Century Politics with an Eighteenth-Century Brain.
Do we really think that the United States will have the protection of innocent Afghans in mind if it rains terror down on the Afghan infrastructure? We are supposedly fighting them because they immorally killed innocent civilians. That made them evil. If we do the same, are we any less immoral?
The mind is inherently embodied._x000D_ Thought is mostly unconscious._x000D_ Abstract concepts are largely metaphorical.
Nothing is so wearing as the possession or abuse of liberty.
About belief or lack of belief in an afterlife: Some of you may know that I am neither Christian nor Jewish nor Buddist, nor a conventionally religious person of any sort. I am a humanist, which mean, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I'm dead.
Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are meaningless in the eyes of the Lord, because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters.
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?
Hence that dread and amazement with which as Scripture uniformly relates holy men were struck and overwhelmed whenever they beheld the presence of God. Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance until they have.
It is the denial of death that is partially responsible for people living empty, purposeless lives; for when you live as if you'll live forever, it becomes too easy to postpone the things you know that you must do.
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