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The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding
In The Meaning of the Body, Mark Johnson continues his pioneering work on the exciting connections between cognitive science, language, and meaning first begun in the classic Metaphors We Live By. Johnson uses recent research into infant psychology to show how the body generates meaning even before self-consciousness has fully developed. From there he turns to cognitive neuroscience to further explore the bodily origins of meaning, thought, and language and examines the many dimensions of meaning—including images, qualities, emotions, and metaphors—that are all rooted in the body’s physical encounters with the world. Drawing on the psychology of art and pragmatist philosophy, Johnson argues that all of these aspects of meaning-making are fundamentally aesthetic. He concludes that the arts are the culmination of human attempts to find meaning and that studying the aesthetic dimensions of our experience is crucial to unlocking meaning's bodily sources.
Throughout, Johnson puts forth a bold new conception of the mind rooted in the understanding that philosophy will matter to nonphilosophers only if it is built on a visceral connection to the world.
“Mark Johnson demonstrates that the aesthetic and emotional aspects of meaning are fundamental—central to conceptual meaning and reason, and that the arts show meaning-making in its fullest realization. If you were raised with the idea that art and emotion were external to ideas and reason, you must read this book. It grounds philosophy in our most visceral experience.”—George Lakoff, author of Moral Politics
Throughout, Johnson puts forth a bold new conception of the mind rooted in the understanding that philosophy will matter to nonphilosophers only if it is built on a visceral connection to the world.
“Mark Johnson demonstrates that the aesthetic and emotional aspects of meaning are fundamental—central to conceptual meaning and reason, and that the arts show meaning-making in its fullest realization. If you were raised with the idea that art and emotion were external to ideas and reason, you must read this book. It grounds philosophy in our most visceral experience.”—George Lakoff, author of Moral Politics
326 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2007
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705 people want to read
About the author
Mark Johnson
21 books64 followersIs a Knight Professor os Liberal Arts and Sciencesin the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon.
Mark Johnson was born in Kansas City, Missouri on May 24, 1949. He received his B.A. in Philosophy and English at the University of Kansas (1971) and his M.A. (1975) and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago (1977). He taught in the Philosophy Department at Southern Illinois from 1977 until 1994, and then moved to the Philosophy Department at the University of Oregon (1994-present). He is currently Professor of Philosophy and Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He is co-author, with George Lakoff, of Metaphors We Live By (Chicago, 2003) and Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought (Basic, 1999). He is author of The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason (Chicago, 1987), Moral Imagination: Implications of Cognitive Science for Ethics (1993), and The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding (2007). He also edited Philosophical Perspectives on Metaphor (Minnesota, 1981). Johnson is author of numerous articles and book chapters on a broad range of topics including philosophy of language, metaphor theory, aesthetics, recent moral theory, ethical naturalism, philosophy and cognitive science, embodied cognition, philosophical psychology, and American pragmatist philosophy.
Mark Johnson was born in Kansas City, Missouri on May 24, 1949. He received his B.A. in Philosophy and English at the University of Kansas (1971) and his M.A. (1975) and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago (1977). He taught in the Philosophy Department at Southern Illinois from 1977 until 1994, and then moved to the Philosophy Department at the University of Oregon (1994-present). He is currently Professor of Philosophy and Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He is co-author, with George Lakoff, of Metaphors We Live By (Chicago, 2003) and Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought (Basic, 1999). He is author of The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason (Chicago, 1987), Moral Imagination: Implications of Cognitive Science for Ethics (1993), and The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding (2007). He also edited Philosophical Perspectives on Metaphor (Minnesota, 1981). Johnson is author of numerous articles and book chapters on a broad range of topics including philosophy of language, metaphor theory, aesthetics, recent moral theory, ethical naturalism, philosophy and cognitive science, embodied cognition, philosophical psychology, and American pragmatist philosophy.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 15, 2020
"Finite, fallible, human truth is all the truth we have, and all we need."
This is a decent overview of pragmatist philosophy. It's accessible, given the subject matter, and provides a lot of references for further reading. It isn't the book I would recommend if you really want to delve into the cognitive science, how all this applies in practice, and why it matters. I find the blurb a bit misleading in that regard.
This is a decent overview of pragmatist philosophy. It's accessible, given the subject matter, and provides a lot of references for further reading. It isn't the book I would recommend if you really want to delve into the cognitive science, how all this applies in practice, and why it matters. I find the blurb a bit misleading in that regard.
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May 8, 2017Metaphor is foundational to all thinking.
July 4, 2015
In many ways The Meaning of the Body is a follow-up to Johnson's earlier book (with Lakoff)
Philosophy in the Flesh
. I didn't enjoy Philosophy in the Flesh that much, partly because I felt like the book bit off way more than it could handle, philosophically. It attempted to give a broad philosophical account, but wound up glossing over a ton of material that it really needed to address. Johnson's Meaning doesn't have that problem; the subject matter is well constrained to a narrow set of claims about how individuals understand the world.
I don't agree with a fair amount of what Johnson says, and I do think that there are parts of the book that overshoot what we can reasonably derive from the data, but a part of what makes the book so fun is the audacity of the conclusions and the strength of the claims. Johnson is really big on embodiment, and it is really cool to see someone who has a strong commitment to a not-widely-accepted view articulate it as fully and audaciously as he would if he were in the position of having a mainstream and accepted view, making the sort of bold assertions that someone with a more mainstream view can get away with.
There are very few books that articulate off-the-beaten track views in philosophy of mind in ways that are accessible and appealing; Johnson contributes really well to that literature, along with some of my personal favorites, like Teed Rockwell's Neither Brain Nor Ghost and Paul Churchland's Engine of Reason . This book is going to sit comfortably next to them within arms reach of my workspace, for exactly that reason. Those interested in philosophy of mind, especially some of the less conventional views in philosophy, would do well to read it.
It does require some familiarity with the literature in cognitive science and general philosophy of mind, especially to appreciate the context and get a critical view of some of Johnson's claims, but still accessible for those who are new to the field.
I don't agree with a fair amount of what Johnson says, and I do think that there are parts of the book that overshoot what we can reasonably derive from the data, but a part of what makes the book so fun is the audacity of the conclusions and the strength of the claims. Johnson is really big on embodiment, and it is really cool to see someone who has a strong commitment to a not-widely-accepted view articulate it as fully and audaciously as he would if he were in the position of having a mainstream and accepted view, making the sort of bold assertions that someone with a more mainstream view can get away with.
There are very few books that articulate off-the-beaten track views in philosophy of mind in ways that are accessible and appealing; Johnson contributes really well to that literature, along with some of my personal favorites, like Teed Rockwell's Neither Brain Nor Ghost and Paul Churchland's Engine of Reason . This book is going to sit comfortably next to them within arms reach of my workspace, for exactly that reason. Those interested in philosophy of mind, especially some of the less conventional views in philosophy, would do well to read it.
It does require some familiarity with the literature in cognitive science and general philosophy of mind, especially to appreciate the context and get a critical view of some of Johnson's claims, but still accessible for those who are new to the field.
April 30, 2018
Johnson shows and explains in this book how all the meaning we make of our world is inherently pre-linguistic, pre-conceptual and -at its very core- embodied. His claims are well-grounded, and as a layman on the particular subject, I’m inclined to stand by them.
Excerpt on metaphors:
The reason that conceptual metaphor is so important, then, is that it is our primary (although not our only) means for abstract conceptualization and reasoning. (…). From an evolutionary perspective, this means that we have not developed two separate logical and inferential systems (…) Instead, the logic of our bodily experience provides all the logic we need in order to perform every rational inference, even with the most abstract concepts.
Three stars because it gets kind of lengthy and very academic at times, which is totally suited for this kind of literature - just not always my cup of tea.
Excerpt on metaphors:
The reason that conceptual metaphor is so important, then, is that it is our primary (although not our only) means for abstract conceptualization and reasoning. (…). From an evolutionary perspective, this means that we have not developed two separate logical and inferential systems (…) Instead, the logic of our bodily experience provides all the logic we need in order to perform every rational inference, even with the most abstract concepts.
Three stars because it gets kind of lengthy and very academic at times, which is totally suited for this kind of literature - just not always my cup of tea.
September 29, 2017
It seems that the author leads you through the forest of your mind paying attention to certain exciting objects. Never ending debate about subjectivism and objectivism makes this journey a little tiresome though philosophically enriching (not a question for multi-linguist, just start to learn Chinese and you will get it). 5 stars for "something in the way she moves" in the end... Will go for some more cognitive linguistics for sure.
September 16, 2018
Where has this book been in my life? A philosophical exploration of "meaning" and how the rationalist project has stripped the body and emotion from the philosophical and psychological consideration of meaning. Essential.
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February 6, 2025half-finished in Wellbery's class. would be interesting to read along with the speculative realism/OOO/speculative materialism discourse
March 15, 2017
In one word: awesome. I must honestly attempt to give a review that does justice to Johnson's enormously insightful book that effortlessly synthesizes pragmatism, phenomenology, cognitive linguistics, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and more
January 4, 2014
A book on the other end of the shelf from Nan Shepard's 'The Living Mountain'The Living Mountain. While Shepherd's book is first person experience of our entanglement with the sensed world, Johnson's book tries to stand back and view this entanglement of the meaning of the body in the world from a phenomenological perspective - an attempt to "blend work from cognitive science with traditional phenomenological description, in order to provide an enriched view of human meaning-making." (p.xi) "…in short, this book is about the bodily depths of human meaning-making thtough our visceral connection to our world." (p.xi)
October 5, 2009
Intriguing, slightly laboured book. Still, fantastic attempt to ground the mind in the body - where else would it live?
July 7, 2012
I thought this was a beautiful and refreshingly original examination of people and the way we think.
September 8, 2016
Clear and comprehensive exposition of the theory of embodied meaning.
October 4, 2020
En rigtig god kilde med dybdegående stof og en grundig gennemgang.
- Brugt på universitetet (litteraturvidenskab) til en opgave om Aristoteles, Platon og poetik.
- Brugt på universitetet (litteraturvidenskab) til en opgave om Aristoteles, Platon og poetik.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews