WGBH Forum NetworkGeorge Lakoff, professor, cognitive science, cognitive linguistics, especially the neural theory of language, conceptual systems, conceptual metaphor, syntax-semantics-pragmatics; also the application of cognitive linguistics to politics, literature, philosophy and mathematics at Berkeley Linguistics Department
George Lakoff, author of Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, Whose Freedom?, and Don't Think of An Elephant!, explores the connections between cognitive science and political action. Why do many Americans vote against their own interests? Humans, he argues, are not the rational creatures we've so long imagined ourselves to be. And savvy political campaigns, therefore, should not assume people will use objective reasoning when deciding how to vote. Lakoff discusses his new book, The Political Mind, and explores how the mind works, how society works, and how they work together.
