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The Metaphoric Origins of Objectivity, Subjectivity, and Consciousness in The Direct Perception of Reality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Stanley A. Mulaik
Stanley A. Mulaik*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology Georgia Institute of Technology
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Abstract

This paper utilizes the theories of metaphor of George Lakoff, Mark Johnson and Julian Jaynes to extend Jaynes' metaphor theory of consciousness by treating consciousness as an operator that works with ‘covert behavior’ so that humans can integrate temporally discontinuous percepts with concepts based on metaphoric extensions of the embodied schemas of direct and immediate perception and thereby transcend the limitations of direct perception. A theory of first-person expressions and covert behavior to account for self-conscious awareness as language-based is advanced. Subjectivity and objectivity are metaphors based on schemas of perception.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , June 1995 , pp. 283 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1995

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Footnotes

†

Send reprint requests to the author, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332.

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