Ear-opening concepts...

[jay]

Last night I accompanied dawnd to a lecture by George Lakoff ... I owe her. Not just for her lovely company, conversation afterwards or choice of Ethiopian restaurants, but for pointing me at a set of ideas that radically changes my understanding of politics, both local and large. One of those "a-ha! that's how that part of the world works!" moments... I think that conceptual frameworks and language choices are critical in business and politics.

Words don't have meanings in isolation. Words are defined relative to a conceptual system. If liberals are to understand how conservatives use their words, they will have to understand the conservative conceptual system. -- from an overview to Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, Second Edition

I think I now have a second-favorite linguist, after therealjae... this is very worth reading, IMO. I bought a copy of Lakoff's book after the lecture, but it is in libraries as well.

Comments

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

:^)

Yes, it was an interesting, thought-provoking and altogether enjoyable evening. As well as delicious. :^)

And thanks for the book. *mwah*

(Go Team!)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

You were responsible for it being delicious, and you're welcome. :)

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's a name I haven't heard in years. George Lakoff (as well as his wife? then-wife? Robin Lakoff) is one of those names that was a big name long before I was around, so I'm having a bit of a "wow, he's still alive?" sort of reaction. How cool, that you got to go to see him speak. What's he up to these days?

-J

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

He had a standing-room-only audience in a large church... maybe 500-600. Very much alive, although I'd peg him in in his early 60s ;-). And he's waking up civilians to the fact that words and framing matters, politically... e.g., framing Fox News as "fair and balanced".