Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by George Lakoff

Quote by George Lakoff

“The brain is not neutral; it is not a general-purpose device. It comes with a structure, and our understanding of the world is limited to what our brains can make sense of. Some of our thought is literal- framing our experience directly. But much of it is metaphoric and symbolic, structuring our experience indirectly but no less powerfully. Some of our mechanisms of understanding are the same around the world. But many are not, not even in our own country and culture.”

Quote by George Lakoff

Book:The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain
Create image

Work

The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

George Lakoff
George Lakoff

George Lakoff, born on May 24, 1941, is an American cognitive linguist. His research focuses on the relationship between language and thought, and he has made significant contributions to the field of linguistics with his theories on cognitive linguistics. more

You May Also Like

“The brain is not neutral; it is not a general-purpose device. It comes with a structure, and our understanding of the world is limited to what our brains can make sense of. Some of our thought is literal- framing our experience directly. But much of it is metaphoric and symbolic, structuring our experience indirectly but no less powerfully. Some of our mechanisms of understanding are the same around the world. But many are not, not even in our own country and culture. Our brains and minds work to impose a specific understanding on reality, and coming to grips with that can be scary, that not everyone understands reality in the same way. That fear has major political consequences. Since the brain mechanisms for understanding reality are mostly unconscious, and understanding of understanding itself becomes a political necessity.”

Political Psychology
Book:The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain
Create image

“Since language is used for communicating thought, our view of language must also reflect our new understanding of the nature of thought. Language is at once a surface phenomenon and a source of power. It is a means of expressing, communicating, accessing, and even shaping thought. Words are defined relative to frames and conceptual metaphors.”

Political Psychology
Book:The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain
Create image

“Democracy is illogical at the moment, because the masses are not qualified to choose anything. If they are given the choice to elect either a lesser known scientist or a pop-star, who do you think the majority of them would elect? Isn’t it obvious? Now the real question is - is this kind of democracy, where the majority most proudly and happily choose glamour over wisdom, really a progressive system?”

GovernmentDemocracyPolitical Psychology
Author:Abhijit Naskar
Create image

“The right to provoke, offend, and shock lies at the core of the First Amendment. This is particularly so on college campuses. Intellectual advancement has traditionally progressed through discord and dissent, as a diversity of views ensures that ideas survive because they are correct, not because they are popular.”

PhilosophyPoliticalPsychologyPolitical PhilosophyPolitical PsychologyPolitical Theory
Book:All Minus One: John Stuart Mill's Ideas on Free Speech Illustrated
Create image