Description: Its publication should be a major event for cognitive linguistics and should pose a major challenge for cognitive science. In addition, it should have repercussions in a variety of disciplines, ranging from anthropology and psychology to epistemology and the philosophy of science. . . . Lakoff asks: What do categories of language and thought reveal about the human mind? Offering both general theory and minute details, Lakoff shows that categories reveal a great deal.--David E. Leary, American Scientist
Brief description: George Lakoff is professor emeritus of cognitive science and linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for his discovery of the detailed workings of metaphorical thought and how it structures our understanding of the world. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including Metaphors We Live By, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Review Quotes: "Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things presents some of the most stimulating ideas on mind and meaning i have ever read. it is a book that has far-reaching consequences and is sure to rattle the foundations of thinking and research in the cognitive sciences. Lakoff's book is a tremendous piece of scholarship and an intellectual achievement of the first order. . . . No psychologist should be unfamiliar with this book."--Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr. "American Journal of Psychology"