Edit Author: Kensy Cooperrider

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Kensy Cooperrider is a cognitive scientist, writer, and podcaster dedicated to exploring the intersections of language, culture, and the human mind. After earning his PhD in cognitive science from the University of California, San Diego in 2011, he has focused his research on the unique traits that set humans apart from other animals—particularly in the realms of communication and cognition.

Cooperrider’s wide-ranging inquiries have led him into the history of measurement, the evolution of language, and the peculiar ways we use our bodies to think, from pointing gestures and finger names to hand mnemonics and time concepts. Beyond his academic work, he is a prolific communicator whose writing has appeared in publications such as [https://aeon.co/ Aeon], [https://www.atlasobscura.com/ Atlas Obscura], and [https://nautil.us/ Nautilus]. Cooperrider also hosts and produces the podcast “[https://disi.org/manyminds/ Many Minds],”which examines the diverse varieties of intelligence and mental life within and beyond our species.

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Metaphors matter: They enliven human speech and prose, animate arguments, and stir passions. Some metaphors power political movements, while others propel scientific revolutions. These little figures of speech delight, provoke, captivate, shock, amuse, and galvanize. In one way or another, metaphors just seem to help people make sense of a messy world. But how do they do all this? Whence their peculiar powers? What does it say about the human mind—as in, that humans just cannot escape metaphors—and frankly do not want to?

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In this episode, Kensy Cooperrider features [https://www.stephenflusberg.com/ Dr. Stephen Flusberg], an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science at Vassar College who directs the [https://www.stephenflusberg.com/research.html Framing, Reasoning, And Metaphor (FRAME) Lab]. Dr. Flusberg and Cooperrider first define metaphors, then discuss why humans are so drawn to them, including misleading ideas people may remember from middle school literature class. They consider why some metaphors work and others flop, and how the metaphors used to describe climate change and the prevalence and potency of war varies across different realms of public discourse. In addition, Dr. Flusberg and Cooperrider consider how metaphor operates in science and in scientific theorizing, as well as assess the question of whether there are some ideas that humans simply cannot grasp literally—concepts that can only be approached through metaphor.

Other topics addressed in the podcast episode include:

* Aura farming;
* Nautical metaphors and textile metaphors;
* Outmoded idea that metaphors are mere adornments;
* Metaphor versus analogy;
* Dead metaphors and how to resuscitate them; shadows and footprints; and
* Dan Dennett’s technique of metaphorical triangulation, and the brain-as-computer metaphor (and whether it is actually a metaphor).
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Edit Author: Kensy Cooperrider

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