Recommended Reading on Philosophy / Cognitive Science / Metaphor

[Dan Clore]

Here are some books I recommend on philosophy, cognitive science, and
metaphor:

George Lakoff & Mark Johns, _Metaphors We Live By_.
Good introduction that reveals the pervasiveness of metaphor in human
thought. Explains why metaphor is impossible to eliminate from language,
and introduces "experientalism", an alternative to both objectivism and
subjectivism (both of which contradict the known facts about human
thought).
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226468011/thedanclorenecro

George Lakoff, _Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know that Liberals
Don't_.
Explains conservatism and liberalism as based on different versions of a
metaphor, THE NATION IS A FAMILY. Argues that conservatives have been
able to outcompete liberals due to their understanding of this and
(hence) emphasis on things like "family values". Also describes
right-libertarians as a variant type of conservative.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226468054/thedanclorenecro

George Lakoff, _Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories
Reveal about the Mind_.
Lengthy account drawing on cognitive science, anthropology, and
philosophy describing (with detailed examples) how different sorts of
categories operate in thought processes. Includes a great deal on
"experientalism" vs objectivism and subjectivism.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226468046/thedanclorenecro

George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, _Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied
Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought_.
Extensive account of thought and language and how it derives from
physical, bodily experience.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465056733/thedanclorenecro

Mark Johnson, _Moral Imagination: Implications of Cognitive Science for
Ethics_.
Why traditional ethics does not correspond with current knowledge of
cognitive science; how to create a new ethics that does.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226401693/thedanclorenecro

George Lakoff and Mark Turner, _More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to
Poetic Metaphor_.
Cognitive science of metaphor in relation to literary texts.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226468127/thedanclorenecro

Raymond Gibbs, _The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language, and
Understanding_.
Cognitive science and tropes. Includes not just metaphor but metonymy,
irony, synedoche, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521429927/thedanclorenecro

Antonio Damasio, _Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human
Brain_.
Demonstrates that emotion is a critical part of any decision-making
process.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380726475/thedanclorenecro

Also of interest:

Alfred Korzybski, _Science and Sanity: An Introduction to
Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics_.
The well-known classic.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0937298018/thedanclorenecro

Robert Anton Wilson:
Mind-benders, but necessary reading.
_Prometheus Rising_.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1561840564/thedanclorenecro
_Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World_.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1561840718/thedanclorenecro
_The New Inquisition_.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1561840025/thedanclorenecro

Paul Feyerabend:
Essential reading on philosophy of science.
_Against Method_.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0860916464/thedanclorenecro
_Farewell to Reason_.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0860918963/thedanclorenecro

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Dan Clore

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