Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind - Paperback

by George Lakoff (Author)

The groundbreaking work that Language journal said no linguist could afford to neglect

In Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, George M. Lakoff takes on the classical theory of categorization, which argues that the classes into which our minds and language group things and people are clearly defined and have strict boundaries. Lakoff argues instead that the mind and language build categories around protoypical examples, and that categories then radiate out from those central types. The book argues for embodied cognition and makes a powerful case that meaning cannot be reduced to abstract symbols or removed from the physical experiences of human perception.

Back Jacket

This book presents some of the most stimulating ideas on mind and meaning I have ever read. It is a book that has far-reaching consequences and is sure to rattle the foundations of thinking and research in the cognitive sciences.