Lakoff & Johnson, Metaphors We Live By

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Lakoff Johnson,Metaphors We Live By

• HMXP 102
• Dr. Fike

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The Authors

• Lakoff and Johnson are cognitive linguists.
• That is, they study the relationship between
  thought, language, and action (as in the piece
  that you read for today).
• A key question for them is the following How do
  language and thought influence each other?

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Definition of Metaphor

• What is LJs definition of metaphor?
• See par. 8.
• What do they mean by metaphorical concept?
• See par. 10.

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LJs Definitions

• Metaphor  See Human Experience, par. 8  "The
  essence of metaphor is understanding and
  experiencing one kind of thing in terms of
  another."
• Metaphor  "An analogy identifying one object
  with another and ascribing to the first object
  one or more of the qualities of the second"
  (Harmon and Holman, A Handbook to Literature).  A
  comparison between two things without the use of
  "like" or "as."
• A metaphorical concept is a sentence like
  Argument is war. It is a complete thought,
  rather than a mere image. LJ prefer the term
  metaphorical concept because metaphor is not just
  an image but also a complete thought and as
  such, metaphor has an impact on action, for
  action arises from thought. But they say that
  metaphor means metaphorical concept, so the
  terms may be use interchangeably.

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Review of Plato

• What is Platos main metaphor?
• What sub-metaphors does he use?

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Answers

• What is Platos main metaphor?
• Education is a departure from a cave where
  appearances are distorted.
• What sub-metaphors does he use?
• Dragging someone up to the light
• Turning around
• Upward journey
• Vision
• Light and darkness

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LJ on the First Iraq War

• Important points from "Metaphor and War  The
  Metaphor System Used to Justify War in the Gulf"
  (Part 1)
• "Secretary of State Baker saw Saddam Hussein as
  'sitting on our economic lifeline.'"
• The occupation of Kuwait a "rape," a "kidnap"
• War crime  "murder, assault, kidnapping,
  arson, rape, and theft"
• War a competitive game (chess) or a sport
  (football, boxing) emphasis on "strategic
  thinking"
• "War is politics pursued by other means."
• War a fight between two people
• War a fairy tale  villain (Saddam), victim
  (Kuwait, US), hero (US), magic (weapons)
• War medicine ("surgical strikes")
• Politics business
• The state a person
• Well-being wealth
• Strength for a state military capability
• Maturity for a state industrialization
• Goal of the war to "push Iraq back out of
  Kuwait," to "deal the enemy a heavy blow" or a
  "knockout punch"
• Risks gambles

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Question

• What is LJs main point in our text? See if you
  can pinpoint it.

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LJs Main Point

• See par. 1 2  "Our ordinary conceptual system,
  in terms of which we both think and act, is
  fundamentally metaphorical in nature. . . . Our
  concepts structure what we perceive, how we get
  around in the world, and how we relate to other
  people. Our conceptual system thus plays a
  central role in defining our everyday realities.

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Outline of the Text

• First section
• Main idea (previous slide)
• Example ARGUMENT IS WAR vs. argument is a
  dance (par. 5, 7).
• Second section
• Main ideas there are often many metaphors that
  partially structure a single concept metaphors
  overlap (par. 12).
• Example AN ARGUMENT IS A BUILDINGJOURNEYCONTA
  INER.

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An Example of How This Works

• Get into groups and explore metaphors that are
  used to discuss the presidential primaries and
  caucuses.
• Complete the following sentence as many times as
  you can
• (Argument is war.)
• Politics is______________.

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Politics is

• A contest
• A race
• A journey
• A boxing match
• War
• A horse race
• A gauntlet
• A ritual

• A plane ride
• A fireworks show
• A physics experiment
• A roller-coaster ride
• A revolution
• A structure
• A geological event
• A sailboat race

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Next Step

• Take one of these metaphors and identify
  submetaphors.
• Example
• Politics is a boxing match.
• One candidate scores a knock-out punch.
• What else?

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Why Is This Important?

• Why is it important to realize that when we
  describe something, we do so in terms of
  something else?
• Complete the following sentence
• It is important to understand the role of
  metaphor in human communication because
  ______________.

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LJs Answer

• Par. 9  "We talk about arguments that way
  because we conceive of them that wayand we act
  according to the way we conceive of things (my
  emphasis). 
• What does this statement mean to you?

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Expanding LJs Point

• Thought ? language ? action ? habit ? character ?
  destiny. 
• Be careful of your thoughts because they can
  manifest in language and in action! Thoughts can
  shape your reality!

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In Other Words

• Saying that thoughts are things means that
  thought energy can influence the world around us.
• These three words may be the most important
  lesson of the entire semester. As you think, so
  will you also be.
• In other words, your self is a product of your
  thoughts.

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Rita M. Grosss Selection on the Metaphors
Related to the Goddess

• If we think of the Deity as female, what
  implications emerge?
• Par. 25 strength and capability . . .
  transcendence and dynamic creativity
• Par. 28 the coincidence of opposites such as
  creation and destruction . . . death as well as
  birth
• Par. 33 motherhoodimages of birthing,
  nurturing, and mothering
• Par. 38 a broad range of culturally valued
  goals and activities
• Par. 40 explicit sexual symbolism par. 43
  the reintroduction of sexuality as a significant
  religious metaphor

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Reflection on the Film

• What comments do you have about The Secret? Here
  are some prompts for you
• The mind shapes what you perceivemind and matter
  are not totally separate.
• I am so happy and grateful now that. . . .
• Ask (me), answer (universe), receive (bring
  yourself into alignment with what you have asked
  for).
• Focus passion gratitude ? results
• Gratitude list. List of things in your life as
  you would like them to be.
• Connections to Bill Stricklands Make the
  Impossible Possible.

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Lakoffs Embodied Mind Thesis

• If thought is metaphorical, then truth is not a
  direct reflection of reality.  Truth is not an
  artifact (something fixed for all time) it is a
  construct. 
• That is, we make our own reality by thinking in
  certain ways.  See par. 2  "Our concepts
  structure what we perceive, how we get around in
  the world, and how we relate to other people. 
  Our conceptual system thus plays a central role
  in defining our everyday realities." 
• Further, we understand abstractions in terms of
  our own bodies as well as objects and events in
  the physical world.
• So truth results from a relationship between the
  perceiving mind and the perceived object or idea.
  Truth is thus the result of a dialectical
  process.

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Another Way To Put the Same Point

• The eye/brain is not a faithful camera, but
  tinkers with the world before it gives it to us.
  Some studies suggest that less than 50 percent
  of what we see is actually based on information
  entering our eyes. The remaining 50 percent plus
  is pieced together out of our expectations of
  what the world should look like (and perhaps out
  of other sources such as reality fields). The
  eyes may be visual organs, but it is the brain
  that sees. The brain artfully fills in the
  gaps like a skilled tailor reweaving a hole in a
  piece of fabric. What is all the more remarkable
  is that it reweaves the tapestry of our visual
  reality so masterfully we arent even aware that
  it is doing so.
• --Michael Talbot, The Holographic Universe

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Question

• If you take the ideas on the previous slides to
  their logical extreme, what point emerges?

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Answer

• There is no Truth, only perspective. This is the
  position called relativism. Everything is
  relative to something else (in this case, the
  perceiving mind).
• As in our discussion of Plato, what is Truth (an
  absolute, an artifact waiting to be discovered),
  and what is truth (a perspective, something
  relative)? What is the difference between
  truth-as-artifact and truth-as-construct? This
  is very much like knowledge is a construct (one
  of the goals of HMXP is to help you grasp this
  concept).
• The truth of everything you have believed to be
  true your entire lifeincluding the Bibleis now
  open for doing exactly what Plato says namely,
  turning around and getting a clearer perspective.
  

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The Distinction

• Plato Truth is something absolute and complete
  it awaits our discovery.
• L J Truth is something that humans construct,
  and our own subjectivity is part of the process
  of constructing it.
• The Secret The mind can have an impact on
  physical reality.

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In Other Words

• What I am NOT suggesting that you all become
  relativists.
• What I AM suggesting that you think about
  your thinkingquestion the long-standing beliefs
  that you have taken for granted as well as the
  metaphors that you use to express your beliefs.

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Truth vs. truth

• Can you think of any Truths on which we can all
  agree?
• What if there is nothing that occupies in our
  lives the same position as the Forms/Ideas in
  Plato?
• What if there is no such thing as
  truth-as-artifact?
• Do we simply have to AGREE that some things will
  be centers of meaning? Truth is
  truth-by-consensus?

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What Does This Mean to You?

• Activity Zen Demonstration
• Student  Great teacher, I have come to learn
  from you.
• Teacher  (Sizing up pupil)  I see.  Welcome,
  please come in.
• Student sits down.  Master prepares tea.
• Teacher  Would you care for some tea?
• Student  Yes I would, Master
• Master pours tea slowly, until cup is
  overflowing.  Student in shock.
• Student  Master, my cup is overflowing.
• Master  Then how am I to teach you?
• Spend 5 minutes writing about the significance
  of this little story for you.  Do you see
  connections to types of education that Plato
  identifies?  What is YOUR metaphor for education?
• Source The HMXP website

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The Point and the Moral

• The Point If you think you already know the
  Truth, how can you learn anything from this
  course? If you resist what this course explores,
  are you really getting your moneys worth?
• What metaphor does the Zen Demonstration employ?
• Container metaphor.
• Not The Banking Concept of Education (Paulo
  Freire) your education is not about the
  deposits of information that professors make for
  the purpose of coercion or control.
• You are not receptacles you are cocreators
  this is a metaphorical concept that stems from
  the notion that action arises from thought and
  from language. Truth is a process knowledge is
  a construct.
• The Moral It is important to keep an open mind
  as regards the ideas in our book and the kind of
  writing that the course requires.

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A Similar Trap

• The Law of Universal Retrospective
  Rationalization in retrospect, we clever
  humans can always find a seemingly plausible
  reason why things happened the way they did
  were very, very smart pattern makers.
• --Charles T. Tart, The End of Materialism

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Application

• What kind of metaphors do professors and students
  use to describe paper grading?

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Note the Difference

• Negative
• Nuke em all, let God sort em out.
• Your writing is the disease. Im the cure.
• He blew me out of the water.
• He bled all over my paper.
• He trashed my paper.
• He butchered my paper.
• He ripped it to shreds.
• Professor as Rambo

• Positive
• Yeah, Ill be hard on you, but think of it this
  way each paper is a hurdle that prepares you to
  clear the high bar (your final exam) at the end
  of the semester.
• May I lend you a helping hand? Give you a
  boost?
• Healing.
• Professor as coach and
• helper or as healer

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Big Difference

• Im going to NUKE this paper.
• VS.
• Im going to HEAL this paper.

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The Implications

• Remember thoughts ? language ? action ? habit ?
  character ? destiny.
• So the kind of experience we have relates
  directly to how we think.
• Here is the problem Seeing the same thing from
  different perspectives often causes conflict.
• Can you think of any examples?

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Example Terrorism

• Terrorists believe that jihad, holy war against
  the infidel (the United States), is justifiable.
  
• Their metaphors Terrorists are holy warriors,
  heroes, and martyrs.

• Americans generally believe that a religiously
  motivated war is wrong.
• Our metaphor Terrorists are ___________ (fill
  in the blank).

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So

• How can nations and peoples get along if one
  persons hero is another persons criminal?
• Something that appears evil to one nation may be
  regarded as good by another nation (C. G. Jung,
  CW 10, 862/457).
• . . . each man calls barbarism whatever is not
  his own practice for indeed it seems we have no
  other test of truth and reason than the example
  and pattern of the opinions and customs of the
  country we live in (Montaigne, Of Cannibals).

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Another Example

• What metaphors do men and women use to describe
  dating and relationships?
• See next slide.

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Dating and Relationships(Complete this chart.)

• Women

• Men

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Contrasting Views of Marriage

• To be married is to grind in the mill of an
  undelighted and servil copulation.
• --John Milton, Doctrine and Discipline of
  Divorce
• OR
• One woman is more exotic seas and science
  fiction galaxies than a man can explore in a
  lifetime.

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Question about Couples

• Could it be that couples do not get along because
  they have different metaphors for their shared
  experience?

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Further Exploration

• You can write a paper about a metaphorical
  pattern in your own life.
• Example from a previous students paper My
  family is a house. Or this Matt Groening,
  Work Is Hell. Or THIS Dating is a game.
• But be sure to EVALUATE your pattern as a
  legitimate metaphor and ask yourself whether you
  benefit from it or not.
• END