- Narrative vs Ruminative Sense making: The Mind Red in Tooth and Claw
TL;DR In this post, I dissect two key modes of sense-making: narrative and ruminative: Drawing from these insights, I propose a balanced approach incorporating both modes: The ultimate aim… Read more: Narrative vs Ruminative Sense making: The Mind Red in Tooth and Claw - Improving academic writing: Four books to read during #AcWriMoWhat is #AcWriMo November is the month of writing. There’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) for writing fiction but also AcWriMo (Academic Writing Month) for producing academic writing. The… Read more: Improving academic writing: Four books to read during #AcWriMo
- Unintentional Pygmalions: 4 questions to ask when checking an artificial entity for sentience and how to think about the answers
Summary This post has two independent parts: I ask what would some of the basic criteria for sentience be and how to check for them in a way that… Read more: Unintentional Pygmalions: 4 questions to ask when checking an artificial entity for sentience and how to think about the answers - Learning is a Journey: Consequences of a metaphor
How to read this This will take about 18 minutes to read (at 230 words/min) but the text is structured to make it easy to jump around and find… Read more: Learning is a Journey: Consequences of a metaphor - 3 fundamental problems of translating metaphor (or anything else)
How hard is it to translate metaphor? Metaphor seems like it should be very difficult to translate. But I’d like to argue that what is difficult about translating it… Read more: 3 fundamental problems of translating metaphor (or anything else) - World as a directly meaningful place: A comment on Ecological Psychology and the richness of human experience
Background – From comment to blog post I just finished reading Andrew Wilson’s series of blog posts on the foundation of ‘ecological psychology’ This post started as a comment… Read more: World as a directly meaningful place: A comment on Ecological Psychology and the richness of human experience - History as weather: A fractal theory of history for Ian Morris, Jared Diamond and CGP Grey
Note: This post originally appeared on Medium in 2016. This a very lightly revised version with new formatting for ease of readability. It preceded the post on historical revisionism… Read more: History as weather: A fractal theory of history for Ian Morris, Jared Diamond and CGP Grey - Why I am a feminist: A reading list
I became a feminist because a woman once told me not to be an idiot and I decided that it was good advice. That was in 1998. But I… Read more: Why I am a feminist: A reading list - The nonsense of style: Academic writing should be scrupulous not stylish
The problem with writing advice The problem with the likes of Steven Pinker and Helen Sword is that they like their own writing way too much. But I don’t.… Read more: The nonsense of style: Academic writing should be scrupulous not stylish - Metaphors and freedom: On Tolkien’s notion of allegory vs applicability
On rereading Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, I was struck by this passage in his foreword to the second edition: I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and… Read more: Metaphors and freedom: On Tolkien’s notion of allegory vs applicability - No back row, no corridor: Metaphors for online teaching and learning
Publication note An earlier version of this was published in the Oxford Magazine No 422. This post expands certain sections based on questions and feedback I received following the first publication… Read more: No back row, no corridor: Metaphors for online teaching and learning - It’s not personal, it’s family: Kin, strangers, guests, and the complexity of social obligation
Brooks on the alternatives to nuclear family Tyler Cowen called the extended essay by David Brooks called ‘The nuclear family was a mistake’ a “so far the best essay of… Read more: It’s not personal, it’s family: Kin, strangers, guests, and the complexity of social obligation - How to actually write a sentence: The building blocks of written language
Some time ago, Thomas Basbøll followed up his excellent post on how to write a paragraph with a much more daring endeavour on how to write a sentence. And while… Read more: How to actually write a sentence: The building blocks of written language - Potemkin wisdoms, phronesis and Pixar: How wise sayings protect us from meaning
TL;DR This is an exploration of the difference between wisdom and practical wisdom (phronesis) triggered by this quote from a talk by Ed Catmull: “Once one can articulate an important… Read more: Potemkin wisdoms, phronesis and Pixar: How wise sayings protect us from meaning - So you think you have a historical analogy? Revisionist history and anthropology reading list
What is this about How badly we’re getting history While the world of history and anthropology of the last 30-40 years has completely redrawn the picture of our past,… Read more: So you think you have a historical analogy? Revisionist history and anthropology reading list - Turing tests in Chinese rooms: What does it mean for AI to outperform humans
TLDR; Reports that AI beat humans on certain benchmarks or very specialised tasks don’t mean that AI is actually better at those tasks than any individual human. They certainly… Read more: Turing tests in Chinese rooms: What does it mean for AI to outperform humans - Fruit loops and metaphors: Metaphors are not about explaining the abstract through concrete but about the dynamic process of negotiated sensemaking
Note: This is a slightly edited version of a post that first appeared on Medium. It elaborates and exemplifies examples I gave in the more recent posts on metaphor and… Read more: Fruit loops and metaphors: Metaphors are not about explaining the abstract through concrete but about the dynamic process of negotiated sensemaking - 5 books on knowledge and expertise: Reading list for exploring the role of knowledge and deliberate practice in the development of expert performance
Recently, I’ve been exploring the notion of explanation and understanding. I was (partly implicitly) relying on the notion of ‘mental representations’ as built through deliberate practice. My plan was… Read more: 5 books on knowledge and expertise: Reading list for exploring the role of knowledge and deliberate practice in the development of expert performance - Writing as translation and translation as commitment: Why is (academic) writing so hard?
This book will perhaps only be understood by those who have themselves already thought the thoughts which are expressed in it—or similar thoughts. It is therefore not a text-book.… Read more: Writing as translation and translation as commitment: Why is (academic) writing so hard? - 5 kinds of understanding and metaphors: Missing pieces in pedagogical taxonomies
TL;DR This post outlines 5 levels or types of understanding to help us better to think about the role of metaphor in explanation: Associative understanding: Place a concept in… Read more: 5 kinds of understanding and metaphors: Missing pieces in pedagogical taxonomies - Explanation is an event, understanding is a process: How (not) to explain anything with metaphor
TL;DR There are at least 3 uses of metaphor in the educational process: 1. Invitation to enter; 2. An instrument to grasp knowledge with; 3. Catalyst to transform understanding.… Read more: Explanation is an event, understanding is a process: How (not) to explain anything with metaphor - What would make linguistics a better science? Science as a metaphor
Background This is a lightly edited version of a comment posted on Martin Haspelmath’s blog post “Against traditional grammar – and for normal science in linguistics“. In it he… Read more: What would make linguistics a better science? Science as a metaphor - Cats and butterflies: 2 misunderstood analogies in scientistic discourse
Butterfly effect and Schrödinger’s cat are 2 very common ways of signalling one’s belonging to the class of the scientifically literate. But they are almost always told wrong. They… Read more: Cats and butterflies: 2 misunderstood analogies in scientistic discourse - 3 burning issues in the study of metaphorI’m not sure how ‘burning’ these issues are as such but if they’re not, I’d propose that they deserve to have some kindling or other accelerant thrown on them.… Read more: 3 burning issues in the study of metaphor
- 3 “easy” things that are hard for both humans and AI
Everybody is agog at what AI systems can do. Nobody thought even 10 years ago that machines could be trained to recognise images or transcribe natural speech as well… Read more: 3 “easy” things that are hard for both humans and AI - Innovation is bad for business: 3 more ‘I’ words to compare innovation to
Innovation is the ‘in’ thing. Innovate or die is the buzz up and down the hive mind. Everybody is feeling like they must innovate all of the things all… Read more: Innovation is bad for business: 3 more ‘I’ words to compare innovation to - Does machine learning produce mental representations?
TL;DR Why is this important? Many people believe that mental representations are the next goal for ML and a prerequisite for AGI. Does machine learning produce mental representations equivalent… Read more: Does machine learning produce mental representations? - Not ships in the night: Metaphor and simile as process
In some circles (rhetoric and analytics philosophy come to mind), much is made of the difference between metaphor and simile. (Rhetoricians pay attention to it because they like taxonomies… Read more: Not ships in the night: Metaphor and simile as process - Therapy for Frege: A brief outline of the theory of everything
Frege’s trauma I found the following quote from Frege on the Language goes on holiday blog and it struck as the perfect starting point for this essay which has… Read more: Therapy for Frege: A brief outline of the theory of everything - How to read ‘Women, Fire and Dangerous Things’: Guide to essential reading on human cognition
Note: These are rough notes for a metaphor reading group, not a continuous narrative. Any comments, corrections or elaborations are welcome. Why should you read WFDT? Women, Fire, and… Read more: How to read ‘Women, Fire and Dangerous Things’: Guide to essential reading on human cognition - 10 ways in which music is like language and 8 (more important) ways in which it is not
People often talk about music as if it were language. Leonard Bernstein even recorded a series of lectures applying Chomsky’s theory of generative grammar to music. Chomsky himself answered a question on… Read more: 10 ways in which music is like language and 8 (more important) ways in which it is not - What language looks like: Dictionary and grammar are to language what standing on one foot is to running
Background Sometimes a rather obscure and complex analogy just clicks into place in one’s mind and allows a slightly altered way of thinking that just makes so much sense… Read more: What language looks like: Dictionary and grammar are to language what standing on one foot is to running - Anthropologists’ metaphorical shenanigans: Or how (not) to research metaphor
Over on the excellent ‘Genealogy of Religion’, Cris Campbell waved a friendly red rag in front of my eyes to make me incensed over exaggerated claims (some) anthropologists make… Read more: Anthropologists’ metaphorical shenanigans: Or how (not) to research metaphor - What does it mean when words ‘really’ mean something: Dismiss the Miss
A few days ago, I tweeted a link to an article in TES: What Miss really means < It’s always worthwhile re-examining ingrained inequalities http://t.co/GKhjc4VgUP #edchat #ukedchat #feminism —… Read more: What does it mean when words ‘really’ mean something: Dismiss the Miss - What is not a metaphor: Modelling the world through language, thought, science, or action
The role of metaphor in science debate (Background) Recently, the LSE podcast an interesting panel on the subject of “Metaphors and Science”. It featured three speakers talking about the… Read more: What is not a metaphor: Modelling the world through language, thought, science, or action - Linguistics according to Fillmore
While people keep banging on about Chomsky as being the be all and end all of linguistics (I’m looking at you philosophers of language), there have been many linguists who… Read more: Linguistics according to Fillmore - 5 things everybody should know about language: Outline of linguistics’ contribution to the liberal arts curriculum
Drafty This was written in some haste and needs further refinement. Maybe one day that will come. For now, it will be left as it stands. Background This post… Read more: 5 things everybody should know about language: Outline of linguistics’ contribution to the liberal arts curriculum - Binders full of women with mighty pens: What is metonymy
Metonymy in the wild Things were not going well for Mitt Romney in early autumn of last year. And then he responded to a query about gender equality with… Read more: Binders full of women with mighty pens: What is metonymy - Three books of the year 2013 and some books of the century 1900-2013
I have been asked (as every year) to nominate three books of the year for Lidové Noviny (a Czech paper I contribute to occasionally). This is always a tough… Read more: Three books of the year 2013 and some books of the century 1900-2013 - Pervasiveness of Obliging Metaphors in Thought and Deed
“when history is at its most obliging, the history-writer needs be at his most wary.” (China by John Keay) I came across this nugget of wisdom when I was… Read more: Pervasiveness of Obliging Metaphors in Thought and Deed - Storms in all Teacups: The Power and Inequality in the Battle for Science Universality
The great blog Genealogy of Religion posted this video with a somewhat approving commentary: The video started off with panache and promised some entertainment, however, I found myself increasingly annoyed… Read more: Storms in all Teacups: The Power and Inequality in the Battle for Science Universality - How we use metaphorsI was reminded by this blog post on LousyLinguist that many people still see metaphor as an unproblematic homogeneous concept leading to much circular thinking about them. I wrote… Read more: How we use metaphors
- Do we need a gaming literacy: Literacy metaphor hackI am a gaming semi-literate! I was listening to the discussion of the latest BioShock game on the latest TWiT podcast when I realized that I am in fact… Read more: Do we need a gaming literacy: Literacy metaphor hack
- Framing and constructions as a bridge between cognition and culture: Two Abstracts for Cognitive FuturesI just found out that both abstracts I submitted to the Cognitive Futures of the Humanities Conference were accepted. I was really only expecting one to get through but I’m… Read more: Framing and constructions as a bridge between cognition and culture: Two Abstracts for Cognitive Futures
- The complexities of simple: What simple language proponents should know about linguistics [updated]Update Part of this post was incorporated into an article I wrote with Brian Kelly and Alistair McNaught that appeared in the December issue of Ariadne. As part of… Read more: The complexities of simple: What simple language proponents should know about linguistics [updated]
- Cliches, information and metaphors: Overcoming prejudice with metahor hacking and getting it back again“We have to use cliches,” said professor Abhijit Banerjee at the start of his LSE lecture on Poor Economics. “The world is just too complicated.” He continued. “Which is… Read more: Cliches, information and metaphors: Overcoming prejudice with metahor hacking and getting it back again
- Pseudo-education as a weapon: Beyond the ridiculous in linguistic prescriptivismMost of us are all too happy to repeat clichés about education to motivate ourselves and others to engage in this liminal ritual of mass socialization. One such phrase… Read more: Pseudo-education as a weapon: Beyond the ridiculous in linguistic prescriptivism
- Character Assasination through Metaphoric Pomposity: When one metaphor is not enoughGeorge Lakoff is known for saying that “metaphors can kill” and he’s not wrong. But in that, metaphors are no different from any other language. The simple amoral imperative… Read more: Character Assasination through Metaphoric Pomposity: When one metaphor is not enough
- Moral Compass Metaphor Points to Surprising PlacesI thought the moral compass metaphor has mostly left current political discourse but it just cropped up – this time pointing from left to right – as David Plouffe… Read more: Moral Compass Metaphor Points to Surprising Places
- Killer App is a bad metaphor for historical trends, good for pseudoteachingNiall Ferguson wrote in The Guardian some time ago about how awful history education has become with these “new-fangled” 40-year-old methods like focusing on “history skills” that leads to… Read more: Killer App is a bad metaphor for historical trends, good for pseudoteaching
- Language learning in literature as a source domain for generative metaphors about anythingIn my thinking about things human, I often like to draw on the domain of second language learning as the source of analogies. The problem is that relatively few… Read more: Language learning in literature as a source domain for generative metaphors about anything
- The natural logistics of life: The Internet really changes almost nothingThis is a post that has been germinating for a long time. But it was most immediately inspired by Marshall Poe‘s article claiming that “The Internet Changes Nothing“. And… Read more: The natural logistics of life: The Internet really changes almost nothing
- When is subtle manipulation of data a flat out lie? Truth about Chinese prisons [UPDATE]I’ve been on a China kick lately (reading and listening about its history and global position) and a crime public policy kick (reading and listening to Mark Kleiman). I… Read more: When is subtle manipulation of data a flat out lie? Truth about Chinese prisons [UPDATE]
- I object: A male feminist’s view on the Duchess of Cambridge’s Wedding dressMaybe I should be watching more TV but I honestly had no idea what Kate Middleton looked like. There must have been times I would have heard references to… Read more: I object: A male feminist’s view on the Duchess of Cambridge’s Wedding dress
- Poetry without metaphor? Sure but can it darn your socks?Over on the Language Log, Victor Mair puts to rest that all English expressions have to be tensed and thus prevent timeless poetry. He shares his translation of a… Read more: Poetry without metaphor? Sure but can it darn your socks?
- Religion, if it exists, is negotiation of underdetermined metaphoric cognition [UPDATED]Preamble I am an old atheist and a new agnostic. I don’t believe in God in the old-fashioned Russellian way – if I don’t believe in Krishna, Zeus, water… Read more: Religion, if it exists, is negotiation of underdetermined metaphoric cognition [UPDATED]
- Life expectancy and the length and value of life: On a historical overimaginationAbout 10 years ago, I was looking through a book on populations changes in the Czech lands. It consisted of pretty much just tables of data with little commentary.… Read more: Life expectancy and the length and value of life: On a historical overimagination
- Why don’t metaphorical hawks kill metaphorical doves?A very common metaphor in the political discourse on war is that of doves (peaceniks) and hawks (war-mongers). It has been around at least since the cold war. But… Read more: Why don’t metaphorical hawks kill metaphorical doves?
- Comedian identifies a critical flaw in structuralism: Are distinctive features like leather sleevesI always thought this little bit by Demetri Martin highlights a crucial deficiency in any distinctive feature analysis. Demetri Martin: “I was at a party, and I saw a… Read more: Comedian identifies a critical flaw in structuralism: Are distinctive features like leather sleeves
- Do science fiction writers dream of fascist dictatorships?Some years ago in a book review, I made an off-the-cuff comment that thriller writers tend to be quite right-wing in their outlook whereas science fiction authors are much… Read more: Do science fiction writers dream of fascist dictatorships?
- The brain is a bad metaphor for languageNote: This was intended to be a brief note. Instead it developed into a monster post that took me two weeks of stolen moments to write. It’s very light… Read more: The brain is a bad metaphor for language
- The most ridiculous metaphor of education courtesy of an economics professorAcclaimed academics have policy agendas just like anybody else. And often they let them interfere with a straightforward critical analysis of their output. The monumental capacity for blindness of… Read more: The most ridiculous metaphor of education courtesy of an economics professor
- Philosophers’ songbook #philbitescompI was so inspired by the #philbitescomp twitter contest that I wrote a short history of philosophy in tweetable fragments of songs. Parmenides’ lament: I guess it will make… Read more: Philosophers’ songbook #philbitescomp
- Metaphor is my co-pilot: How the literal and metaphorical rely on the same type of knowledgeImage via Wikipedia “Thanks” to experimental philosophy, we have a bit more evidence confirming, that what many people think about the special epistemological status of metaphor is bunk. We… Read more: Metaphor is my co-pilot: How the literal and metaphorical rely on the same type of knowledge
- The Tortoise and the Hare: Analogy for Academia in the Digital World?Image via Wikipedia Dan Cohen has decided to “crowdsource” (a fascinating blend, by the way) the title of his next book with the following instructions. The title should be… Read more: The Tortoise and the Hare: Analogy for Academia in the Digital World?
- Why Chomsky doesn’t count as a gifted linguistSomebody commented on the Language Log saying “of course […] Chomsky was a massively gifted linguist” http://j.mp/9Q98Bx and for some reason, to use a Czech idiom, the handle of… Read more: Why Chomsky doesn’t count as a gifted linguist
- Why ideas aren’t enough to solve the Palestine-Israeli conflictAn advertising agency is trying to solve a bloody conflict. This is presumptuous on such as scale that it could be called idiotic. Quoth http://www.theimpossiblebrief.com: “Rather than ‘out of… Read more: Why ideas aren’t enough to solve the Palestine-Israeli conflict
- I write like… a new more sophisticated stripper name?Making connections between ourselves and other people no matter how arbitrary, is an incredibly popular communal as well as private activity. The many algorithms for generating one’s stripper, mobster… Read more: I write like… a new more sophisticated stripper name?
- What it’s not about so much aboutvia http://volokh.com/2010/07/06/analogies-metaphors-and-similes
- Hacking a metaphor in five stepsPreliminaries Image via Wikipedia 1. Before you start metaphor hacking you must first accept that you don’t have a choice but to speak in some sort of a figurative… Read more: Hacking a metaphor in five steps
- What it’s all AboutImage via Wikipedia Metaphors are not just something extra we use when we’re feeling poetic or at a loss for le mot juste, they are all over our minds,… Read more: What it’s all About
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