Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking (138 page)

energy/strange mass
analogy,
479–480
,
484

engines: for categorization,
15
; for inference,
20
; for searching,
25
,
115
,
220
,
402
; for translation,
369

English language: borrowings from French,
122
; breakup of
siblinghood
in,
77
; contrasted with Chinese,
12
; contrasted with French,
8
,
11
,
77
,
78
,
79–80
,
81–83
,
89
,
97
,
101
,
102
,
113
,
119–123
,
465
; contrasted with German,
8–9
,
465
; contrasted with Indonesian,
77
; contrasted with Italian,
8
,
11
,
89
; contrasted with Russian,
9–10

enrichment via impoverishment,
250

entropy calculations leading to light quantum,
458

equals sign: as denoting identity of two items,
407–409
; as denoting operation + result,
407–411
; invention of,
408
; meaning of, in
E
=
mc
²
,
473

equations: in advertising,
409–410
; asymmetric conception of,
407–411
,
474
; causal interpretation of,
410–411
,
474
; as requiring interpretation,
473
; turned around,
409–410

equivalence principle,
491–495
; extended,
495–496

error
, as category with blurry boundaries,
41
,
281

errors: caused by real-time categorization pressures,
258
,
261
; caused by semantic proximity,
270–278
; deep problem of explanation of,
264
; due to frame blend of physical world with virtual world,
404–407
; high-level analogies giving rise to,
268
,
274–278
,
280
;
versus
children’s semantic approximations,
41
,
270
; as visible traces of subterranean processes,
259
,
261
;
see also
action errors
,
frame blends
,
lexical blends
,
speech errors

esprit d’escalier
as a concept available to francophones but not to anglophones,
121

“essence”, double meaning of, in French,
291

essences: compression of situations down to,
261
; hidden by surfaces,
114–115
; revealed by caricature analogies,
317–318
,
320–323
,
326–330
; revealed by repeated conceptual extensions,
200–204
,
255
,
295
,
397–398

essence-spotting: in caricature-analogy creation,
321–322
,
324–330
; by children,
42
; in Copycat domain,
350
; as crux of intelligence,
125–127
,
426–427
,
452
,
463
; in deeply novel situations, as rare gift,
131
; by Einstein,
454
,
458
,
463
,
486
; implausibility of instant carrying-out of,
173–174
; made easy by prior placement of conceptual pitons,
131
; role of expertise in,
174
; as routine and unseen,
18
; as secret of generalization in mathematics,
449
; time taken in,
466

esthetics, in Copycat domain,
349–352
,
355–357
,
359–360
,
353–364
; as driving Einstein,
477–478
,
485
,
495
,
500

“étudiant” as both gendered and generic in one sentence,
194

Euler, Leonhard,
210
,
443
,
449

Eureka moment,
250–252
,
300–301

Europe/Asia analogies,
306–307
,
334

Everest, Mount,
109
,
320
,
367

Everett, David,
109

everyday imagery
versus
grand historical precedents,
333–335

everyday life
versus
book-learning,
391–394

evolution of a concept as revealing its essence,
202–204

evolutionary interpretation of the lure of the superficial,
338

“exactly the same thing”,
143
,
152
,
153
,
346
,
347
,
358
,
364
,
379
,
399
,
407
,
495
,
520

expectations embedded in “and” and “but”,
70–75

experiments on memory retrieval, flaws in,
337–340

expert knowledge and hierarchical levels of categorization,
236–246

expert-level
versus
novice-level categorization,
342–344
,
346

expertise: in everyday life,
344
; facilitating essence-spotting,
174
; nature of,
238–246
; precision and depth as keys to,
246

experts’ blindness to shallow features,
343–344

explanatory caricature analogies,
324–330

exponents/subscripts
analogy by Doug,
169–170

ex post facto
diagrams of a deep analogy, as casting no light on its creation,
160

extension
versus
intension of a category,
55
,
244

extra force to explain anomalous motions in an accelerating frame,
488

extrapolation of one’s past experiences as an irresistible mental force,
305–307
,
310–313

eyelash/eyelash
analogy,
155–156
,
517

—F—

F = ma
,
410
,
491

fables as labels of categories,
111–118

Fabre, Jean-Henri,
388

fabric internal to various letter strings,
353–354
,
356–357

facial remindings,
181–184

fake boat
and
fake tango
category,
521–522

Falen, James,
315

Falkland Islands War, Greece’s position in,
332

false hopes engendered by irresistible analogy,
313

fame leading to canonization,
221

familiarity, effects on categorization of,
390–391

Faraday, Michael,
493
; of window-glass making, the,
222

far-fetched analogies, deliberate search for, as non-recipe for creativity,
251
,
452

fathers encoded as disillusioners,
171

fatuity, gratuity, and vacuity,
282

Fauconnier, Gilles,
335
,
362–364
,
365
,
433
,
443

fauxthenticity
, concept of,
176–178
,
345

feminine and masculine rhymes,
380–381

Fenway (dachshund), analogies by,
180

Fermi, Enrico,
453

Ferrari, Lodovico,
445

Ferré, Léo,
221

Ferro, Scipione del,
438

Festinger, Leon,
115

fictitious forces,
488
,
491–492

“fictitious” (negative) numbers,
440

fields, electric and magnetic: oscillating,
212–213

fields (mathematical),
447–448

films of events as constituting episodic memory,
172

filtering as ongoing perceptual process,
298–299

fine line separating simple from deep analogies,
45
,
142–143

finger-pointing analogies,
140–143
;
see also
index finger
,
heart
,
toe finger-wiggling analogies
,
350–351
,
515

Finlay-Freundlich, Erwin,
496

firewalls protecting us from hackers, spam, and viruses,
396
,
398

first ⇒ last
conceptual slippage,
356–357

first names as defining categories,
226–227

flashlight, two-headed,
470–471

fleeting analogies, vanishing before being noticed,
282
,
285–286

floppy-disk icon, outmodedness of,
402

flow of discourse, psychology reality of,
71

fluid analogies in the Copycat domain,
348
,
350
,
352
,
357

fly on screen, removal of using mouse,
405

Flynn effect on IQ scores,
10–131

Flynn, James R.,
130

“folder”, old-fashioned definition of,
397

foot
, internal structure of the concept,
51

forgetfulness, selective, as key ingredient of intelligence,
426–427

formal knowledge, inadequacy of,
389
,
391–394

formal operations
versus
mental simulation in math,
424–425
,
431

formulas conflated with understanding,
391–394

“4 is to 3 as 3 is to 2” proportional analogy,
438
,
444

four-dimensional space: absurdity of,
443
; as analogous to three-dimensional space,
444
,
453

“Four score and seven years ago” translation challenge,
368–372

“Fox and the Grapes”, fable by Æsop,
112–114
;
see also
poems in the text
,
sour grapes

fractional dimensions,
444

frame blends: of American and Chinese cultures,
367–368
; of car driving and video-game playing,
405
; of cemetery circuit and hotel circuit,
142
; of computer world and physical world,
402–407
; of conferences,
142
; in Copycat domain,
359–360
,
363–364
; creativity manifested by,
360–364
; defined,
358–359
; of dominos toppling and countries falling to communism,
335
; of drooping cigarette and drooping penis,
362
; of emperor Napoleon and emperor penguins,
380
; of grocery stores,
23
,
156
; of lecture hall and professor’s office,
142
; in
light/sound
analogy,
361
; of name-change upon marriage and year-change every January,
148
; of plate-throwing woman and her mother,
367
; in scientific analogies,
360–361
; of solar system and atom,
142–143
; subjectivity of,
363–364
; of
there
situations,
140–143
; of two trains,
140–141
; as typical analogies,
364
; underlying diagram of ballet-lesson problem,
432–433
; in understanding of “dent”,
363
; in understanding of films, operas, etc.,
361
; in understanding of “safe”,
362
; used by authors in the text,
366–367
;
versus
analogies,
363–364
,
366–367

frames of reference: absolute,
487
; accelerating,
486
,
488
; indistinguishability of certain,
466–468
,
486–487
,
492
,
494–495
; shifts between,
466–468
,
469–471
,
487–488
,
492–494
,
495–496
,
497–498

framing of errors as making them easy to see,
262

Franklin, Benjamin,
109
,
275

freedom-of-speech joke,
358

“freeing oneself from the known”, chimerical idea of,
313–315

French Academy (Académie française),
113

French fries: combined with orange sherbet,
352
; portion of, likened to bagels in a batch,
308

French language: “A rolling stone gathers no moss” in,
102
; bilingual data base involving,
372–373
; borrowings from English in,
122
; compound words in,
87
,
89
; concept of
hair
in,
77
; concept of
sibling
in,
77
; contrasted with English language,
8
,
11
,
77
,
78
,
79–80
,
81–83
,
89
,
97
,
101
,
102
,
113
,
119–123
,
465
; different translations for “time” in,
77–78
; “Four score and seven years ago” in,
369–372
; grammar of, exploited, for high-quality translation,
376–377
; idioms in,
97
,
119
; “Once bitten, twice shy” in,
105
; proverbs in,
101
,
106
,
109
; this book’s realization in,
377–382
; zeugmas in,
8
,
11–12