The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason

by Mark Johnson

"There are books—few and far between—which carefully, delightfully, and genuinely turn your head inside out. This is one of them. It ranges over some central issues in Western philosophy and begins the long overdue job of giving us a radically new account of meaning, rationality, and objectivity."—Yaakov Garb, San Francisco Chronicle

Genres: Philosophy, Linguistics, Psychology, Nonfiction, Language, Anthropology, Science

272 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1987

About the author

Is 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.

Reviews

[Gareth Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent companion for “the metaphors we live by”, leading gently into “embodied cognition”. One of several incredible books relating to these subjects.

Apparently there are these bad people called “objectivists”. They are frequently contrasted to the ‘more reasonable’ approach within. I’m not sure I have ever met a person who thinks propositional logic has solved the problem of human cognition and suspect this is more a reflection somehow of the culture wars so keenly fought on US campuses.

[Josiah Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great account of what it is to be human. We understand the world around us through our experiences, but it's our imagination and metaphorical relation to the empirical data that we gather that we can relate and perceive what we know.

[Mahmoud Seifi · Rating 4 out of 5]

a classic in the cognitive linguistics theory of meaning. clear ideas in transparent words!

[Katja · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book which you would appreciate even more if you are familiar with the standard, model-theoretic approach to semantics. Johnson's arguments are solid and convincing but it is yet unclear how operational his theory of (linguistic) meaning is.

[Stuart Macalpine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of the very consistent work by Eleanor Rosch, George Larkoff and Mark Johnson on how experience based schematic metaphors structure our understanding of the world. A solid read with some useful insights.

[Cecilia Anastos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. I recommend readers to also read George Lakoff

[Dave Peticolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Johnson explores the cognitive role of "image schemata", which are recurring patterns and structures in our minds and which determine how we perceive and interpret our experience of the world. They also allow us to share meanings with each other as the schemata are derived from our bodily experience of functioning in the world and the similarity of our bodies and cultures lead us to have many of the same schemata in common.

[Tú · Rating 5 out of 5]

a wow book on modal verbs with modest style of writing. Mark Johnson is a great philosopher whose contribution to the combination of metaphor and concrete linguistic expressions (typically modal verbs) is marvelous.

A great practical philosopher, one must say.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very clear argument for the value of non-objecivist theories of meaning, giving proper emphasis to the place of understanding and metaphor, among other things.

[Mark]

On pause as of 04 June 2015