Darwin-L Message Log 1:182 (September 1993)

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

This is one message from the Archives of Darwin-L (1993–1997), a professional discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.

Note: Additional publications on evolution and the historical sciences by the Darwin-L list owner are available on SSRN.

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<1:182>From huh@u.washington.edu  Mon Sep 20 16:28:12 1993

Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 14:20:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mark Rushing <huh@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: Lakoff
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu

On Mon, 20 Sep 1993, Margaret E. Winters wrote:

> What Lakoff is doing in "Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things" - to
> expand a little on what was said - is to propose that categorization
> is not just used for things, but for mental objects as well (not a
> new idea) including linguistic items (his contribution).  We categorize
> grammatical constructions as well as words, all of this in terms
> of `best instances' or prototypes (see the work of the psychologist
> Eleanor Rosch) and better or worse instances which are arranged
> around these prototypical examples.

margaret,

i'm curious -- perhaps you are aware of some Fact-based study, or perhaps
you might speculate -- how are these categorical groupings interconnected?
i suppose you could use, as analogy, a 'primitive' human who plays with a
club and cracks open a shell, then some cross-referential process occurs
where this same technique is applied to another human skull, then more
cross-referential processes occur, etc...

from a perspective which may be closer to Home, the 'creative' process in
which notions (or Observations) of biological evolutionary process is made
a metaphor for societal Institutions.  i'm not saying that i believe there
is anything wrong with this, but it seems that this sort of creative
process is what might 'propel' scientific thought.  after all, a dream
must occur (a hypothesis) before it can be put on Trial...

                   mark

           mark rushing
          post office box 85267
        seattle, washington  98145-1267

           206.329.8070
         huh@u.washington.edu
         rushing@battelle.org
       Mark.Rushing@f157.n343.z1.fidonet.org

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