Re: George Lakoff's writings
- From: "J.A.Legris" <jalegris@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 23 Oct 2006 09:55:49 -0700
Allan Adler wrote:
I've been reading some of George Lakoff's books, including More Than Cool
Reason, Where Mathematics Comes From, Don't Think of an Elephant and
Irregularity in Syntax. I got started on this by watching on Book TV
a lecture he gave on his book Whose Freedom and also by hearing sound bites
on NPR in which he says that certain assumptions one makes about the
logical workings of the mind are false. In More Than Cool Reason, he
enumerates poetic metaphors and it is my uninformed impression that this
tends to represent his approach in other applications of cognitive science:
an enumeration of the available patterns or metaphors that are available to
us when we consider various topics.
There are a few questions I have about this stuff:
(1) To what extent are the things he claims to be consequences of solid
work in cognitive science and linguistics really known to be true?
(2) More generally, what really are the standards for establishing stuff
like the enumeration of available metaphors and their structure, as
indicating the limitations of our ways of thinking?
(3) To what extent does his writing on mathematics, on philosophy and on
politics from this point of view derive directly from his old work
in his thesis on irregularity in syntax?
Being a mathematician, I'm inclined to rate what he says about the
mythology of mathematics as being on the level of observing that a certain
professor always clears his throat before he begins a proof. I'm also
inclined to think that the main reason his book on where mathematics comes
from has received such a polite reception from mathematicians who are
quoted on the cover is not because of its inherent correctness. Instead,
I think it is because of the suggestion that, if the mind really is limited
in the metaphors it can use to apprehend mathematics, then mathematicians,
who in recent times have had to be sensitive to suggestions that they are
not doing a good enough job of teaching mathematics or designing math
curricula, might feel they have to take his work into account, even if
they aren't really sure about its merits.
At any rate, since he brings his point of view to a number of subjects
and claims it as a reliable application of cognitive science and linguistics,
it is reasonable to ask how solid the science is. I'm inclined to think it
is a little on the soft side.
See also Steven Pinker's review of Whose Freedom in "The New Republic",
Oct. 9, 2006.
--
Joe Legris
.
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