George Lakoff (born 1941)
Born 1941 CE.
George Philip Lakoff ( LAY-kawf; born May 24, 1941) is an American cognitive linguist and philosopher, best known for his thesis that people's lives are significantly influenced by the conceptual metaphors they use to explain complex phenomena. Lakoff served as professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1972 until his retirement in 2016. The conceptual metaphor thesis, introduced in his and Mark Johnson's 1980 book Metaphors We Live By has found applications in a number of academic disciplines. Applying it to politics, literature, philosophy and mathematics has led Lakoff into territory normally considered basic to political science. In his 1996 book Moral Politics, Lakoff described conservative voters as being influenced by the "strict father model" as a central metaphor for such a complex phenomenon as the state, and liberal/progressive voters as being influenced by the "nurturant parent model" as the folk psychological metaphor for this complex phenomenon. According to Lakoff, an individual's experience and attitude towards sociopolitical issues are influenced by being framed in linguistic constructions.
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