Ideas as Things Essay -- Metaphors Essays

There are many metaphors utilize to illustrate the butt on of learning or understanding. Educationaltheorists use metaphors to describe and debate their theories, but ordinary sight also usemetaphors to describe cognition. For example, we use images of light to extract thought we applybright creative thinkers or dark thoughts, or see we the light of reason. Atmospheric conditions are alsoused to describe the quality of psyches thinking, a person underside be an airhead, plans can be hazy,and memory can cloud.The common metaphors used to describe learning and cognition disagree from those used by recenteducational theorists. Most modern thinkers in educational psychology use the metaphor of thoughtsand memories as objects with real locations in space. In their models of thought and cognition,ideas and memories can be organized, built with, be used to create frameworks with they can evenbecome unwavering and patterned. In addition, if our thoughts do become rigid we can sof ten themby moving laterally quite a than building further on the structures we have already created. In themodern educational philosophers paradigm, ideas are no longer the ephemeral products of light andair. Instead, they have become concrete objects that take up space. Ideas, for psychologists, arethings that we can manipulate.Can I breath this?In spite of the current popularity of the paradigm that thoughts are physical, the design of thoughtsas light or air, as noted above, persists in common usage. When we say that soulfulness has a bright idea,we do not mean that the idea actually illuminates anything. Instead, we mean that his or her idea makessense to us. It is an interesting metaphor because it likens understandin... ...e ancient epistemic debate stillrages. At least ordinary people have not decided whether to allow for the existence of an immaterialmind, whose action is not entirely dependent upon the mechanical functioning of the physicalbrain. Cognitive psychologis ts, perhaps, take that thoughts are matter, but common metaphors hintthat regular people are not to that degree wholly convinced.Works CitedThe American Heritage Dictionary of the slope Language. 4th ed. Houghton Mifflin,2000.Glover, John A., Royce R. Ronning, and Cecil R. Reynolds. Handbook of Creativity. 1sted. Springer, 1989.Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary . Nov 2002. 23 Sep. 2005.Kearsley, Greg. TIP The Theories. Theory into Practice. 14 Sep. 2005.gOFFICE.com 3 Ideas as Things Essay -- Metaphors EssaysThere are many metaphors used to illustrate the process of learning or understanding. Educationaltheorists use metaphors to describe and demonstrate their theories, but ordinary people also usemetaphors to describe cognition. For example, we use images of light to express thought we havebright ideas or dark thoughts, or see we the light of reason. Atmospheric conditions are alsoused to describe the quality of someones thinking, a person can be an a irhead, plans can be hazy,and memory can cloud.The common metaphors used to describe learning and cognition differ from those used by moderneducational theorists. Most modern thinkers in educational psychology use the metaphor of thoughtsand memories as objects with real locations in space. In their models of thought and cognition,ideas and memories can be organized, built with, be used to create frameworks with they can evenbecome rigid and patterned. In addition, if our thoughts do become rigid we can soften themby moving laterally rather than building further on the structures we have already created. In themodern educational philosophers paradigm, ideas are no longer the ephemeral products of light andair. Instead, they have become concrete objects that take up space. Ideas, for psychologists, arethings that we can manipulate.Can I touch this?In spite of the current popularity of the paradigm that thoughts are physical, the conception of thoughtsas light or air, as noted above, persists in common usage. When we say that someone has a bright idea,we do not mean that the idea actually illuminates anything. Instead, we mean that his or her idea makessense to us. It is an interesting metaphor because it likens understandin... ...e ancient epistemological debate stillrages. At least ordinary people have not decided whether to allow for the existence of an immaterialmind, whose action is not completely dependent upon the mechanical functioning of the physicalbrain. Cognitive psychologists, perhaps, believe that thoughts are matter, but common metaphors hintthat regular people are not yet wholly convinced.Works CitedThe American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 4th ed. Houghton Mifflin,2000.Glover, John A., Royce R. Ronning, and Cecil R. Reynolds. Handbook of Creativity. 1sted. Springer, 1989.Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary . Nov 2002. 23 Sep. 2005.Kearsley, Greg. TIP The Theories. Theory into Practice. 14 Sep. 2005.gOFFICE.com 3