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
