Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking (134 page)

analogues
versus
schemas,
336–337

analogy: as analogous to asparagus tips,
135
; as analogous to siren songs,
23
; as analogous to wild horses,
392

analogy leapfrog,
211–212

analogy-making: addictive nature of,
155
; as applying to entities
versus
applying to relations,
517–519
; automaticity of,
513–514
; as bridge-building between two items on the same level,
519–522
; as a cognitive luxury,
506
; as compatible with very few disparities,
515–517
; as a conscious process,
510–513
; as contrasted with assignment to a schema,
336
; as the core of cognition,
3
,
18
,
25–26
,
383
,
505
,
530
; as creative,
508–510
; as the crux of intelligence,
127
; in decision-making,
330–337
; as the Delaware of cognition,
17
; delight provided by,
506
; dependence on familiarity of source domain,
339–340
; described by experts exactly as categorization is described,
436
,
506
; driven by surface-level cues,
337–346
; efficiency of,
346
; embodiment and,
287–289
; in everyday life
versus
in wartime,
333–335
; evoking symbol-manipulation recipes in mathematics,
450–451
; as fallible and misleading,
22–24
,
435
,
527–529
; as formal reasoning,
16
; frame-blending and,
357–367
; as the fuel and fire of thinking,
3
; in getting used to new mathematical concepts,
442–444
; going as deep as one can go in,
360
; as the heartbeat of thought,
15
,
17
; identity with categorization,
503–530
; illusion of necessary seriousness of,
282
; incessant avalanche of,
18
,
24
,
28
; as jumping between two levels of abstraction,
519–522
; lack of right answers in,
16
,
350
,
352
; as lacking in computers,
25
; as the machinery of categorization,
15
,
17
,
39–49
,
183–184
,
309
,
336
,
399
; as making the novel familiar,
436
,
506
; as making the world predictable,
436
; by mathematicians,
439–451
; as mediating object recognition,
19
; misleading stereotypes of,
15–17
; in mundane mathematical manipulations,
449–450
; naïve analogy concerning,
451
; as noble,
508
; not used in domestic politics,
337
; as objective,
522–526
; opacity of the mechanisms of,
511
; at the origin of metaphors,
63–64
; in poetry translation,
380–381
; as prerequisite to survival,
155
,
157
; as primarily done in intelligence tests,
16
; as a rare luxury,
505–508
; in real life as opposed to the lab,
339
; as reliable,
527–529
; as risky,
527
; as routine,
508–510
; in scientific discovery,
32
,
210–214
,
361
; as subjective,
522–526
; supposedly driven by superficial features only,
337–340
; supposedly strengthened by disparities,
515–517
; as suspect,
527–529
; in translation of this book,
377–382
; ubiquity of,
506–508
; as an unconscious process,
510–513
; underlying all word choices,
see
word choices
; utility of,
135
;
versus
categorization,
434–437
; as a voluntary process,
513–514
; in wartime decision-making,
17
,
331–337
; wide range of,
19
; wide spectrum of abstraction of, in mathematics,
451

“analogy”, rarity of the word,
135

and
-situations as a category,
55
,
70–75
; contrasted with
but
-situations,
72–75

Anderson, John,
436

angel stung by bumblebee,
see
interplanetary bumblebee

animal
, as highly variegated category,
516

animal words as metaphors,
228–232

animals: conceptual repertoires of,
54
; as Platonic categories,
56

Ann, as member of many categories,
59
,
190
,
191

Anna, as spokesperson for the centrality of analogy-making,
503–529
; poofing into thin air,
529
;
see also
Katy
,
Katyanna

annihilating nano-boulders,
482

annus minimus
of Ellen Ellenbogen,
463–464

annus mirabilis
of Albert Einstein,
453
,
467
,
468–469

“Ant and the Grasshopper” (Æsop),
388

anti-economy, principle of, as a consequence of the dominance of the superficial in reminding,
341

ants: near Grand Canyon,
see
Danny at Grand Canyon
; on orange, watching eclipse,
204–205
,
367

appearances, as deceptive
versus
revelatory,
345

Arabic language, proverb in,
106

Archimedes,
130
,
250–252
,
300–301
,
509
; of minigolf, the,
222

Argentina, role of, in Falkland Islands War,
332

Aristotle,
15–16
,
21
,
437
; of the airwaves, the,
222

arithmetical operations, relative difficulty of,
425

“Arizona Ants” (Kellie Gutman),
160
,
380–381

army/thought
analogy,
26
,
27

Arnaud, Pierre,
259

Ars Magna
(Cardano),
438–439

articles (“a” and “the”), as names of categories,
76

artificial intelligence,
20
,
25

artistic unity, as goal of Einstein,
477
,
495
;
see also
esthetics

“as deep as one can go”, in analogy-making,
360

asparagus tip
analogies,
19

“atmospheric harbor” as incomprehensible phrase,
86

“atom” as an unsplittable etym in English, 89
atom/solar system
analogy,
142–143
,
510
,
513
,
515
,
518

atoms: lingering doubts about existence of,
459
,
475
,
487
; vibrating in solids to make heat,
461
,
475
; vibrating in wall of black body,
456

attic
, concept of
48–49
,
278

avoidance maneuvers while walking, analogy-making in,
285

—B—

Babbage, Charles,
369

Bach, Johann Sebastian,
312
; of the vibraphone, the,
222
; rapid essence-spotting by,
501
;
Bachelard, Gaston,
22

bagels belonging to a single batch,
309–310
,
529

bait-and-switch
as a concept available to anglophones,
123–124

balls, bells, and bowls,
488

Banach, Stefan,
502

banalogies (banal analogies),
143–156
,
281–286
; certainty of,
529
; by Einstein,
454–455
; elusiveness of, due to blandness,
152
,
282
,
285–286
; great utility of,
23
,
507
,
509
,
516
,
529

bananalogy, of use when seeking bananas,
156

“band”, diverse meanings of,
3–4

Bar-Hillel, Yehoshua,
370

bark worse than bite
category,
96

Barsalou, Lawrence,
137–138

baseball-based caricature analogies,
325–326
,
383

base-level categories,
190

basketballs as members of the category
floating objects
,
58

Bassok, Myriam,
345

bassoonist falling off roof as source of me-too analogy,
150–151

“Bayh”/”bye” analogy,
27

“beaucoup”, as compound word in French, broken into two concepts in English,
83

bending over backwards to accommodate contrary evidence,
291–292

Bengali poetry, as perceived by non-speakers,
343

Benserade, Isaac de,
112

betting one’s life at all moments on a myriad of trivial and unconscious analogies,
156

Bezout, Étienne,
413
,
415
,
420

bibles
, category of
220
,
229

bike-rental anomaly, explained by analogy,
328–330

bilingual data bases in machine translation,
369
,
372–373

biplans: involving actions,
279
; linguistic,
268–270

bird:
as an example of an imprecise category,
55–56
,
58
,
59–60
; as a platform for making inferences,
102

birds in airport/accordionist in métro
analogy,
378
,
380

black body: defined,
455
; Max Planck and,
456–457
; spectrum of,
455–459

black body/ideal gas
analogy: as found by Einstein,
457–459
,
463
; as found by Wilhelm Wien,
458

black body/swimming pool
explanatory analogy,
455
,
456
,
458

blended scenario,
see
frame blends

blending,
see
frame blends
,
lexical blending

blinders, categorical,
58
,
290–296

blindness as result of an inability to categorize,
21

blobs, colored, in conceptual spaces,
78–81

boat in amusement park as member of category
trolleycar
,
521

boat on tracks
as category,
521–522

body-to-body analogies,
155–156

Bohr, Niels,
143
; pooh-poohing Einstein’s light quanta,
462

Bolt, Usain,
75
; of cognitive science, the,
222

Boltzmann, Ludwig,
457

Bombelli, Raffaello,
440
,
442

bongos on savannah in museum,
364–366

books: as abstract, immaterial entities,
7
; strange types of,
83

Borges, Jorge Luis,
38
,
188

“bosse” (French word),
198–200

bottle
, evolution of the concept in a child’s mind,
198–200

bottlecaps on ground,
see
Dick at Karnak

bottles thrown overboard,
284

box canyon,
see
impasse

boxes, as misleading model of categories,
13–14
,
20
,
52
,
54–57
,
60–61
,
435

brainbows,
182–184

brain tumors, analogy between two,
312–313

“brand”, evolution of meanings of,
202

brand names, genericized,
217–218

Brazilian street vendors’ arithmetic,
414–415
,
422

breaking
, marginal examples of the category,
41–42

bridge
, as surprisingly elusive category,
67

bridges everywhere lighting up when button is pushed,
67

bridges, mental,
183–184
,
336
;
see also
analogy-making
Brissiaud, Rémi,
424

Brownian motion,
458

“browse”, old-fashioned definition of,
397

“brush”, used zeugmatically,
8

“Brustwarze”, unheard parts inside,
87

bubbling-up of concepts from dormancy,
67
,
170–171
,
489
,
491
,
492
,
498
,
511
,
513–514
,
525
;
see also
remindings
,
memory retrieval