Throughout the Bible and the Psalms there are metaphors that are created through blending. A point that Fauconnier made in the article as that not only does this blending occur, but we don't usually realize its happening, just like the computer interface example with the mouse and then the arrow on the screen. when we talked about the psalms in class, we focused on the metaphors we didn't understand and how they related to history. What about metaphors that seem so simple or obvious we don't even realize they are there?
When reading about the examples in the article ( skiing, sailing, etc) I tried to apply it to big picture ideas of religion.
1. God is a metaphor.
2. Religion is completely blended and all/most? religions are blended.
3. Humans created religion because they need metaphors to explain the world around them.
4. Nothing, including religion, would be possible without blending.
Fauconnier writes that partial mapping " are mappings from one mental space to another ...(and) the possibility of building cross space mapping is .. made salient only by our own cognitive system and experience in the world"(pg 278). Our religious ideas and the religions themselves are possible because we create them in our minds. Religions and aspects in them are metaphors for things in the real world.
Information on Conceptual blending.
Information on the author, Gilles Fauconnier.
perfect.. and you move easily into the discussion of religion. I agree strongly with your final point that nothing would be possible without blending..
ReplyDeletei like how you made it simple with the point that you made 1-4 and i agree with you on number 2
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