Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 38, No. 346.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
                      Hosted by DH-Cologne
                       www.dhhumanist.org
                Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org


    [1]    From: Sheldon Richmond <askthephilosopher@gmail.com>
           Subject: Re: [Humanist] 38.344: the vocabulary of thinking about something? (67)

    [2]    From: William Benzon <bbenzon@mindspring.com>
           Subject: Re: [Humanist] 38.344: the vocabulary of thinking about something? (10)


--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2025-01-30 13:32:45+00:00
        From: Sheldon Richmond <askthephilosopher@gmail.com>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 38.344: the vocabulary of thinking about something?

The role of expectations and theory in perception exercised Popper, Kuhn,
Gombrich.  Personally, I find the theory of James Gibson the most
interesting: the ecological approach where perception is both bounded and
stretched by the affordances provided by one’s environment—the affordances
provided when in an open plain, versus a swamp, versus a classroom…

Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

Regards—Sheldon

On Thu, Jan 30, 2025 at 2:31 AM Humanist <humanist@dhhumanist.org> wrote:

>
>               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 38, No. 344.
>         Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
>                       Hosted by DH-Cologne
>                        www.dhhumanist.org
>                 Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
>
>
>
>
>         Date: 2025-01-29 15:45:06+00:00
>         From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
>         Subject: nudging words
>
> Recently I began to wonder about the implications of terms used to
> identify the action of studying something. Several times I have noticed
> and wondered about the frequency with which a close friend writes that
> she "looks at" this or that academic subject (as if it were an object in a
> museum or gallery) and others who write about "approaching" the
> object (in modesty or trepidation? from a distance?). I find myself
> writing that I "consider" some problem or other (as if looking to the
> stars for direction or advice, pondering but without the weight?).
> Does anyone use 'contemplate' or 'meditate in academic discourse?
>
> Where the mind is led--that's the problem. Sight, Rudolf Arnheim writes,
> is the "distance sense par excellence" (New Essays on the Psychology of
> Art, 1986), favouring detachment, offering a degree of safety, hence
> survival, perhaps. Imagine being in a jungle where tigers prowl,
> or ponder Van Gogh's Wheatfield with Crows.
>
> Anthropologist Anne-Christine Taylor writes about the art produced
> under the influence of ayahuasca as devices for seeing with or through,
> not looking at. Alfred Gell's "The Technology of Enchantment and the
> Enchantment of Technology" (in The Art of Anthropology, 1999) brings
> us back to our machine. "Magic haunts technical activity like a shadow".
> he writes.
>
> I have a collection of PDF'd editions and revisions of Peter Mark
> Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases from the original 1852
> edition and a few that followed, in 1911, 1946, 1962 2002 and 2003--plus
> the OED. But I'd like to catch a flavour (there's another one) of the
> words in current use for leading the reader's (and one's own) mind
> here or there..
>
> All help with this will be greatly appreciated!
>
> Best,
> WM
> --
> Willard McCarty,
> Professor emeritus, King's College London;
> Editor, Humanist
> www.mccarty.org.uk


--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Date: 2025-01-30 07:40:41+00:00
        From: William Benzon <bbenzon@mindspring.com>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 38.344: the vocabulary of thinking about something?

Hi Willard,

You should take a look at what cognitive linguists call the “conduit metaphor,”
which is a system of words we use for conceptualizing communication. The
Wikipedia entry gives a good overview and points you to the literature:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conduit_metaphor

Bill B




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