The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind's Hidden Complexities

by Fauconnier, Gilles; Turner, Mark

• ISBN13: 9780465087853
• ISBN10: 046508785X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-01
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

Until recently, cognitive science focused on such mental functions as problem solving, grammar, and pattern-the functions in which the human mind most closely resembles a computer. But humans are more than computers: we invent new meanings, imagine wildly, and even have ideas that have never existed before. Today the cutting edge of cognitive science addresses precisely these mysterious, creative aspects of the mind.The Way We Think is a landmark analysis of the imaginative nature of the mind. Conceptual blending is already widely known in research laboratories throughout the world; this book, written to be accessible to both lay readers and interested scientists, is its definitive statement. Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner show that conceptual blending is the root of the cognitively modern human mind, and that conceptual blends themselves are continually combined and reblended to create the rich mental fabric in which we live.The Way We Think shows how this blending operates; how it is affected by (and gives rise to) language, identity, culture, and invention; and how we imagine what could be and what might have been. The result is a bold and exciting new view of how the mind works.

Author Biography

Gilles Fauconnier is Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego.

Table of Contents

Overview by Chapter	xi
PART ONE: THE NETWORK MODEL
The Age of Form and the Age of Imagination	3	(14)
The Tip of the Iceberg	17	(22)
The Elements of Blending	39	(20)
On the Way to Deeper Matters	59	(16)
Cause and Effect	75	(14)
Relations and Their Compressions	89	(24)
Compressions and Clashes	113	(26)
Continuity Behind Diversity	139	(32)
PART TWO: HOW CONCEPTUAL BLENDING MAKES HUMAN BEINGS WHAT THEY ARE, FOR BETTER AND FOR WORSE
The Origin of Language	171	(24)
Things	195	(22)
The Construction of the Unreal	217	(32)
Identity and Character	249	(20)
Category Metamorphosis	269	(10)
Multiple Blends	279	(20)
Multiple-Scope Creativity	299	(10)
Constitutive and Governing Principles	309	(44)
Form and Meaning	353	(36)
The Way We Live	389	(8)
Notes	397	(8)
References	405	(10)
Further Important Work on Conceptual Blending	415	(8)
Index	423