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Ideas as Things Essay

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There are many metaphors used to illustrate the process of learning or understanding. Educational theorists use metaphors to describe and demonstrate their theories, but ordinary people also use metaphors to describe cognition. For example, we use images of light to express thought; we have
‘‘bright ideas’’ or ‘‘dark thoughts,’’ or see we the ‘‘light of reason.’’ Atmospheric conditions are also used to describe the quality of someone’s thinking, a person can be an ‘‘airhead,’’ plans can be hazy, and memory can cloud.
The common metaphors used to describe learning and cognition differ from those used by modern educational theorists. Most modern thinkers in educational psychology use the metaphor of thoughts and memories as objects …show more content…

Here light illustrates the moment of understanding. The metaphor of cognition as light is so ingrained in our culture that if we want to draw a cartoon of someone having a new idea, we draw a picture of the person with a light bulb over his or her head. This visual metaphor is almost universally understood within our society. Although when we use the metaphor that understanding is light, it can sometimes imply that the idea is an object that we can see, the metaphor does not directly name ideas as objects.
Similarly, ideas are compared to air and are affected by atmospheric conditions in common usage.
Thoughts, plans, and ideas, like air, can grow hazy or cloudy. When we use one of these metaphors it means we can not understand something or can not execute the plan. Conversely, neither can the ‘‘air’’ of ideas be completely empty. The metaphorical connection between empty

air and foolishness has a long history. In fact, the word fool and follies originate from the Latin word follis, which meant a large inflated sack or ball (Harper). The word fool is found in English writings as early as the 13th century (American Heritage). To this day, we call stupid or boring people
‘‘windbags’’ ‘‘blowhards’’ and ‘‘airheads,’’ suggesting that a ‘‘worthy’’ idea is something is something more substantial

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