xvi Preface Or do meaningful thought and reason essentially concern the nature of the organism doing the thinking-including the nature of its body,its interactions in its environment,its social character,and so on? Though these are highly abstract questions,there does exist a body of evi- dence that suggests that the answer to the first question is no and the an- swer to the second is yes.That is a significant part of what this book is about. Why does all this matter?It matters for our understanding of who we are as human beings and for all that follows from that understanding.The capacity to reason is usually taken as defining what human beings are and as distinguishing us from other things that are alive.If we understand rea- son as being disembodied,then our bodies are only incidental to what we are.If we understand reason as mechanical-the sort of thing a computer can do-then we will devalue human intelligence as computers get more efficient.If we understand rationality as the capacity to mirror the world external to human beings,then we will devalue those aspects of the mind that can do infinitely more than that.If we understand reason as merely literal,we will devalue art. How we understand the mind matters in all these ways and more.It matters for what we value in ourselves and others-for education,for re- search,for the way we set up human institutions,and most important for what counts as a humane way to live and act.If we understand reason as embodied,then we will want to understand the relationship between the mind and the body and to find out how to cultivate the embodied aspects of reason.If we fully appreciate the role of the imaginative aspects of rea- son,we will give them full value,investigate them more thoroughly,and provide better education in using them.Our ideas about what people can learn and should be learning,as well as what they should be doing with what they learn,depend on our concept of learning itself.It is important that we have discovered that learning for the most part is neither rote learning nor the learning of mechanical procedures.It is important that we have discovered that rational thought goes well beyond the literal and the mechanical.It is important because our ideas about how human minds should be employed depend on our ideas of what a human mind is. It also matters in a narrower but no less important way.Our under- standing of what reason is guides our current research on the nature of reason.At present,that research is expanding faster than at any time in history.The research choices made now by the community of cognitive scientists will shape our view of mind for a long time to come.We are at present at an important turning point in the history of the study of the mind.It is vital that the mistaken views about the mind that have been with us for two thousand years be corrected
XVI Preface Or do meaningful thought and reason essentially concern the nature of the organism doing the thinking--including the nature of its body, its interactions in its environment, its social character, and so on? Though these are highly abstract questions, there does exist a body of evidence that suggests that the answer to the first question is no and the answer to the second is yes. That is a significant part of what this book is about. Why does all this matter? It matters for our understanding of who we are as human beings and for all that follows from that understanding. The capacity to reason is usually taken as defining what human beings are and as distinguishing us from other things that are alive. If we understand reason as being disembodied, then our bodies are only incidental to what we are. If we understand reason as mechanical-the sort of thing a computer can do--then we will devalue human intelligence as computers get more efficient. If we understand rationality as the capacity to mirror the world external to human beings, then we will devalue those aspects of the mind that can do infinitely more than that. If we understand reason as merely literal, we will devalue art. How we understand the mind matters in all these ways and more. It matters for what we value in ourselves and others-for education, for research, for the way we set up human institutions, and most important for what counts as a humane way to live and act. If we understand reason as embodied, then we will want to understand the relationship between the mind and the body and to find out how to cultivate the embodied aspects of reason. If we fully appreciate the role of the imaginative aspects of reason, we will give them full value, investigate them more thoroughly, and provide better education in using them. Our ideas about what people can learn and should be learning, as well as what they should be doing with what they learn, depend on our concept of learning itself. It is important that we have discovered that learning for the most part is neither rote learning nor the learning of mechanical procedures. It is important that we have discovered that rational thought goes well beyond the literal and the mechanical. It is important because our ideas about how human minds should be employed depend on our ideas of what a human mind is. It also matters in a narrower but no less important way. Our understanding of what reason is guides our current research on the nature of reason. At present, that research is expanding faster than at any time in history. The research choices made now by the community of cognitive scientists will shape our view of mind for a long time to come. We are at present at an important turning point in the history of the study of the mind. It is vital that the mistaken views about the mind that have been with us for two thousand years be corrected
Preface xvii This book attempts to bring together some of the evidence for the view that reason is embodied and imaginative-in particular,the evidence that comes from the study of the way people categorize.Conceptual systems are organized in terms of categories,and most if not all of our thought in- volves those categories.The objectivist view rests on a theory of catego- ries that goes back to the ancient Greeks and that even today is taken for granted as being not merely true,but obviously and unquestionably true. Yet contemporary studies of the way human beings actually categorize things suggest that categorization is a rather different and more complex matter. What is most interesting to me about these studies is that they seem to provide evidence for the experientialist view of human reason and against the objectivist view.Taken one by one,such studies are things only scholars could care about,but taken as a whole,they have something magnificent about them:evidence that the mind is more than a mere mir- ror of nature or a processor of symbols,that it is not incidental to the mind that we have bodies,and that the capacity for understanding and mean- ingful thought goes beyond what any machine can do
Preface XVll This book attempts to bring together some of the evidence for the view that reason is embodied and imaginative-in particular, the evidence that comes from the study of the way people categorize. Conceptual systems are organized in terms of categories, and most if not all of our thought involves those categories. The objectivist view rests on a theory of categories that goes back to the ancient Greeks and that even today is taken for granted as being not merely true, but obviously and unquestionably true. Yet contemporary studies of the way human beings actually categorize things suggest that categorization is a rather different and more complex matter. What is most interesting to me about these studies is that they seem to provide evidence for the experientialist view of human reason and against the objectivist view. Taken one by one, such studies are things only scholars could care about, but taken as a whole, they have something magnificent about them: evidence that the mind is more than a mere mirror of nature or a processor ofsymbols, that it is not incidental to the mind that we have bodies, and that the capacity for understanding and meaningful thought goes beyond what any machine can do
BOOK I The Mind beyond the Machine
BOOK I The Mind beyond the Machine
PART I Categories and Cognitive Models
PART I Categories and Cognitive Models
CHAPTER The Importance of Categorization Many readers,I suspect,will take the title of this book as suggesting that women,fire,and dangerous things have something in common-say,that women are fiery and dangerous.Most feminists I've mentioned it to have loved the title for that reason,though some have hated it for the same rea- son.But the chain of inference-from conjunction to categorization to commonality-is the norm.The inference is based on the common idea of what it means to be in the same category:things are categorized together on the basis of what they have in common.The idea that categories are defined by common prcperties is not only our everyday folk theory of what a category is,it is also the principal technical theory-one that has been with us for more than two thousand years. The classical view that categories are based on shared properties is not entirely wror.g.We often do categorize things on that basis.But that is only a small part of the story.In recent years it has become clear that categorization is far more complex than that.A new theory of categoriza- tion,called prototype theory,has emerged.It shows that human categori- zation is based on principles that extend far beyond those envisioned in the classical theory.One of our goals is to survey the complexities of the way people really categorize.For example,the title of this book was in- spired by the Australian aboriginal language Dyirbal,which has a cate- gory,balan,that actually includes women,fire,and dangerous things.It also includes birds that are not dangerous,as well as exceptional animals, such as the platypus,bandicoot,and echidna.This is not simply a matter of categorization by common properties,as we shall see when we discuss Dyirbal classification in detail. Categorization is not a matter to be taken lightly.There is nothing more basic than categorization to our thought,perception,action,and speech.Every time we see something as a kind of thing,for example,a tree,we are categorizing.Whenever we reason about kinds of things-chairs,nations,illnesses,emotions,any kind of thing at all-we 5
CHAPTER 1 The Importance of Categorization Many readers, I suspect, will take the title of this book as suggesting that women, fire, and dangerous things have something in common-say, that women are fiery and dangerous. Most feminists I've mentioned it to have loved the title for that reason, though some have hated it for the same reason. But the chain of inference-from conjunction to categorization to commonality-is the norm. The inference is based on the common idea of what it means to be in the same category: things are categorized together on the basis of what they have in common. The idea that categories are defined by common prcperties is not only our everyday folk theory of what a category is, it is also the principal technical theory-one that has been with us for more than two thousand years. The classical view that categories are based on shared properties is not entirely wroLg. We often do categorize things on that basis. But that is only a small part of the story. In recent years it has become clear that categorization is far more complex than that. A new theory of categorization, called prototype theory, has emerged. It shows that human categorization is based on principles that extend far beyond those envisioned in the classical theory. One of our goals is to survey the complexities of the way people really categorize. For example, the title of this book was inspired by the Australian aboriginal language Dyirbal, which has a category, balan, that actually includes women, fire, and dangerous things. It also includes birds that are not dangerous, as well as exceptional animals, such as the platypus, bandicoot, and echidna. This is not simply a matter of categorization by common properties, as we shall see when we discuss Dyirbal classification in detail. Categorization is not a matter to be taken lightly. There is nothing more basic than categorization to our thought, perception, action, and speech> Every time we see something as a kind of thing, for example, a tree, we are categorizing. Whenever we reason about kinds of things--ehairs, nations, illnesses, emotions, any kind of thing at all-we 5