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Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking
Basic Books
May 2013
On Sale: April 23, 2013
512 pages
ISBN: 0465018475
EAN: 9780465018475
Kindle: B00BE65086
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
Is there one central mechanism upon which all human thinking
rests? Cognitive scientists Douglas Hofstadter and Emmanuel
Sander argue that there is. At this core is our incessant
proclivity to take what we perceive, to abstract it, and to
find resemblances to prior experiences—in other words, our
ability to make analogies. In The Essence of
Thought, Hofstadter and Sander show how analogy-making
pervades our thought at all levels—indeed, that we make
analogies not once a day or once an hour, but many times per
second. Thus, analogy is the mechanism that, silently and
hidden, chooses our words and phrases for us when we speak,
frames how we understand the most banal everyday situation,
guides us in unfamiliar situations, and gives rise to great
acts of imagination. We categorize because of
analogies that range from simple to subtle, and thus our
categories, throughout our lives, expand and grow ever more
fluid. Through examples galore and lively prose peppered,
needless to say, with analogies large and small, Hofstadter
and Sander offer us a new way of thinking about thinking.
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